All,

I along with 30 or so other environmental groups met with four members of the President-elect Obama’s transition team on Monday. They were here to listen and that is exactly what they did. Unexpectedly, I ended up facilitating the discussion, but I did get a chance to talk to them afterward to present our comments. The team members made it very clear that they would not be suggesting policy to the President-elect.

Folks talked a lot about Clean Water Act jurisdiction. Bad Supreme Court decisions have muddied the waters regarding what is a water of the nation. A piece of federal legislation could put that right. It’s call the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act. The team members indicated that they have been hearing a lot about this issue in the 150 or so interviews they haveconducted. Folks talked about a number of things that were diligently written down from nuclear waste contaminating water to mountain top removal. The team did not indicate whether they thought one issue would be a priority over any other. Neither did they speculate on the new EPA administrator. The announcement is expected this week, perhaps tomorrow.

I made sure to have an opportunity to talk to them about Tennessee’s concerns. We are concerned about the confusion on the federal level about waters of the nation trickling down to waters of the state as it did in last year’s terrible legislation, the Limited Resource Waters Bill. I also told them that enforcement of environmental laws was of utmost importance to our members and other folks that we work with.

Speculation about the next stimulus bill carried a large part of the discussion. There is concern from many groups that stimulus money will go to fund projects with the technology of the 1950’s. We urged the transition team to discuss ways in which we can use some of that money for new technologies and more R&D. Unfortunately, stormwater infrastructure may not be funded.

The meeting went longer than expected but the team was willing to listen until we were through. It was a great experience and a harbinger of good things to come. Finally, an administration who listens.

RvH

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Building the River Movement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.