Once again the best interests of the people of Vermont are on schedule to be derailed by the deep pockets of business.   It’s such a familiar story that it almost slips by unnoticed.

According to the Free Press, on the last day of the legislative session, language that was inserted into the budget bill to give the public a voice in the enforcement phase of ANR jurisdiction will be removed so as to not delay the end of the session.

The last-minute measure would have allowed public input on environmental enforcement cases, bringing the state partially into compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules. Without it, the state risks losing $1.55 million in EPA funding, Agency of Natural Resources Deputy Secretary Chris Recchia told senators.

Nice.  So, not only are we once again left voiceless in a critical process, but we will essentially be taxed $1.55 million for that dis-privilege.  

Louis Porter of the Conservation Law Foundation said it best:

“The question here is whether we provide the public their right to participate in state-initiated environmental enforcement, or whether we protect polluters,”

Like it or not, the ANR essentially receives its marching orders from whoever happens to be the governor at the moment.  Right now, we’re pretty happy with how that worked out, but over the past eight years environmental activists have been in agony watching enforcement fail under the Douglas administration.  

This is why it is so essential that public input has a structural role in the enforcement process.  The EPA recognizes that need, why doesn’t a progressive state like Vermont?

Open government? Not so much.

Representing the views of business, I suppose, the Freeps quotes William Driscoll , vice-president of Associated Industries of Vermont:

“It creates greater uncertainty about how rules are going to be enforced,” he said. “Businesses like to know the rules.”

This seems somewhat disingenuous, as if the “rules” provide no more than an arbitrary yardstick.  The subtext is that businesses count on being able to “work” the ANR so that they can be seen as officially compliant even while falling short of strict adherence to the rules; and they can induce a benign culture in which penalties represent no more than a slap on the wrist.  

Introducing into the enforcement process the higher expectations of those who must live with the consequences of non-compliance will inevitably disrupt this deliberate calculus.

So add this local development to the growing body of evidence that individuals are becoming less than equal to corporations in post-Citizens-United America.  You, too, will soon know what it means to be a second-class citizen.