It’s that time of the year again: the time when all the state and local politicians, as well as various special interest organizations, bring out the big guns and flood your TV with commercials meant to change your mind in the upcoming elections. Usually the topics stick to crime, money and “being tough on Washington,” however, this time around, there’s a new talking point.
As reported last year by CBS News, chemical companies DuPont and Chemours began discharging a chemical called GenX into the Cape Fear River from a plant in Fayetteville, according to Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, since the 1980’s. While the full extent of the chemical’s effects is still unknown, biologist Larry Cahoon made it perfectly clear: “It’s toxic. It’s corrosive. We know that.”
While there are plenty of other environmental incidents in our nation’s history, such as the BP oil spill or the Flint water crisis, the GenX discharge is one of the most recent incidents to remind us that the environment doesn’t rank very high in the list of priorities for many lawmakers on all government levels. Many modern legislators may claim to fight for green policy, but the lack of stricter regulation and attitude towards these polluting corporations points to the contrary.
For starters, the “punishments” carried out against those that break environmental regulations are comically worthless. For example, as reported by the AP, Duke Energy, a company that brings in billions in annual revenue, was fined a laughable $156,000 earlier this year for its spillage of toxic coal ash into nearby bodies of water. This fine is a tiny fraction compared to the CEO’s reported salary.
It’s true that companies like Duke Energy provide vital services to the community. The repercussions they face should only be enough to discourage future violations, but not harm the people they serve. Still, lawmakers have to put their foot down if we want to preserve an even somewhat clean environment for the next generation.
All this controversy is where politics come into play. As reported by Wilmington Star News, North Carolina Senate Republicans have proposed funding almost $10 million to the extremely-underfunded NC Department of Environmental Quality, similar to the Senate Democrats’ proposed $10.6 million dollar bill. However, both parties’ proposed GenX solutions contain various strengths and flaws.
The Democrats’ intent is for these recurring funds to be used to prevent similar events from happening in the future, but they don’t do enough to solve the current GenX crisis. Meanwhile, the Republicans’ non-recurring funds will aid in the cleanup of GenX, but do not provide adequate funding to strengthen the NCDEQ in order to minimize the chances of something like this happening again. During all of this, members of both parties are spending plenty of time pointing fingers at flaws of the other party’s proposals, instead of cooperating.
Of all the issues that you would think would force lawmakers to drop their partisan politics and come together to solve present and future problems, this would be the one. A massive toxic chemical spill is not only an environmental issue, but affects just about every sector you can think of: health, agriculture, tourism and so on. Yet, politicians still use the subject as just another reason to go to war with the other side of the aisle, all while the problems still linger.
However, as with many environmental incidents, even if there is a bipartisan agreement about a necessary crackdown on pollution, companies succeed in “getting away with it” time after time due to the lobbyists’ influence of the legislature. A study by Environment America found that during the 2014 election cycle, top polluting industries spent over $200 million on lobbying and influencing the American government. These corporations’ ability to manipulate legislation means that, unless changes are made, regulatory laws will be more difficult to pass.
This is where students and others who understand the necessity of strong environmental policy need to step in and raise their voices. While there are certainly plenty of great movements and events out there promoting environmental activism, the problem is that there just isn’t enough interest to make it an issue that the average person is passionate about. Sure, everyone loves to tout that they recycle or carpool, but the public needs to speak louder not only against the polluters, but the legislators that let them off easy.
We need to make it loud and clear that it’s time to stop. It’s time for government officials to stop labeling environmental crises as something to be dealt with another day. The impacts are being felt now. All life on Earth, from bees to plants to humanity, are facing the consequences of humanity’s failure to get strict on green policy. It’s time for stricter legislation that both fixes the current issues and strongly enforces future guidelines. A threatened environment endangers all life, and it’s time for lawmakers and companies to be held accountable.
