Editorial: Craft new DEC policy carefully
Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks before the announcement of winners of the Regional Economic Development grants at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. (Dec. 8, 2011) Credit: Skip Dickstein / Times Union
The goal of New York's Department of Environmental Conservation is full compliance with a long list of state and federal laws to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the surroundings we live in. The goals of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo include doing all that, but also making our state more open to business.
Now a proposed new DEC policy looks to harmonize those goals, by encouraging some firms to audit their own environmental practices and report their violations to the DEC. If it works, it could increase compliance, with the heavy hammer of enforcement falling on polluters as needed. If it's not carefully crafted, it has get-out-of-jail-free potential.
The agency held a meeting on this issue for those involved -- both from the environmental and business communities -- early in the year. An early, unofficial draft of the self-audit policy is being circulated. It's a long way from finality on issues such as which companies will be eligible for self-audit. But clearly, those with dirty records won't be invited initially -- and shouldn't.
Some companies already do self-audits, because the threat of government enforcement action got them to look at their environmental responsibilities more seriously. Others can be encouraged to honestly report on their own performance, if the incentives for honesty are set at the right level -- such as lower penalties.
DEC will be meeting with interested parties again in the weeks ahead, and the agency needs to listen to both industry and environmentalists to calibrate this policy properly. It also needs to work closely with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. For one thing, the EPA offers a form of self-audit policy of its own. Also, the EPA delegates to the state agency the enforcement of federal laws.
There's a lot riding on this for the governor, too. His open-for-business goal is a worthy one, but if this policy ends up letting polluters off too easy and not gaining greater compliance, it will be a failure. The DEC regulations must strike the right balance between greenbacks and a green environment -- before the state gives it the green light.
