Spillover

Business and industry got exactly what they wanted when Governor McCrory and DENR Secretary John Skvarla took office. Then they got exactly what they didn’t need when Duke’s coal ash spilled into the Dan River.
 
Suddenly, “customer friendly” sounds like “polluter friendly.” The U.S. Attorney raises the threat of criminal indictments. And The New York Times unearths this episode: A DENR official telling employees in charge of stopping water pollution:  “The General Assembly doesn’t like you. They cut your budget, but you didn’t get the message. And they cut your budget again, and you still didn’t get the message….If you don’t like change, you’ll be gone.”
 
Now, you wonder who is going to be gone. And where this will all end.
 
Now, environmental issues are odd political animals. They have a passionate, but relatively small, constituency. On most polls, they rank down the list of priorities. But that changes when people hear that poison is being dumped in rivers where they fish, boat and get their drinking water. The environment goes from zero to 90 overnight.
 
Governor McCrory is scrambling to get in front of this. He knows he can’t afford another department in scandal, on top of DHHS. But the water is, as they say, under the bridge. Now we see who drowns. And DENR may learn who the ultimate customers are: the citizens and taxpayers.
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Gary Pearce

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Spillover

Business and industry got exactly what they wanted when Governor McCrory and DENR Secretary John Skvarla took office. Then they got exactly what they didn’t need when Duke’s coal ash spilled into the Dan River.
 
Suddenly, “customer friendly” sounds like “polluter friendly.” The U.S. Attorney raises the threat of criminal indictments. And The New York Times unearths this episode: A DENR official telling employees in charge of stopping water pollution:  “The General Assembly doesn’t like you. They cut your budget, but you didn’t get the message. And they cut your budget again, and you still didn’t get the message….If you don’t like change, you’ll be gone.”
 
Now, you wonder who is going to be gone. And where this will all end.
 
Now, environmental issues are odd political animals. They have a passionate, but relatively small, constituency. On most polls, they rank down the list of priorities. But that changes when people hear that poison is being dumped in rivers where they fish, boat and get their drinking water. The environment goes from zero to 90 overnight.
 
Governor McCrory is scrambling to get in front of this. He knows he can’t afford another department in scandal, on top of DHHS. But the water is, as they say, under the bridge. Now we see who drowns. And DENR may learn who the ultimate customers are: the citizens and taxpayers.
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Gary Pearce

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