Donald McEachin: Scott Pruitt Will Harm the Chesapeake’s Future

By Congressman A. Donald McEachin (VA-04)

WHILE MANY OF President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominations have been controversial, I’m extremely concerned about his choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. He has not just put a fox in charge of the henhouse, he has invited the fox inside and handed him the chickens.

E. Scott Pruitt was recently confirmed as administrator of the EPA. Every American should be deeply troubled by this development — especially anyone who cares about Tidewater.

I have the privilege of representing parts of Hampton Roads in the U.S. Congress. I take that responsibility seriously, and I am deeply committed to meeting the challenges we face. We must acknowledge and plan for sea level rise, recurrent flooding and other painful realities. We must swiftly reduce the kind of carbon pollution that is driving those changes. We must continue working towards a clean, healthy, sustainable Chesapeake Bay. None of these priorities are negotiable.

As a state legislator, I carried the Virginia Coastal Protection Act — a bipartisan measure intended to curb carbon pollution and increase resilience in our coastal communities. I intend to build on that work in Congress, and I plan on working closely with good-faith partners, on both sides of the aisle, to move us forward.

Experts agree that Hampton Roads faces unique risks; nationwide, only New Orleans is more vulnerable to sea level rise. A study by the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission found that a three-foot rise in sea level this century — a realistic possibility — could cost the region up to $87 billion.

Without appropriate mitigation, thousands of acres could disappear under water. And these figures do not begin to capture the potential human costs — the pain, suffering, and disruption that families and businesses would face.

Scientists with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have suggested that we need 20 or 30 years’ lead time to effectively plan for these coming challenges. In other words, the clock is ticking. Under the threat of such immense harm, Democrats and Republicans need to set aside partisan squabbles in order to protect our communities. We cannot afford to wait.

It’s also vitally important that we continue working with the EPA to limit pollution and restore the Chesapeake Bay to health. A cleaner bay will pay enormous economic dividends — benefits like higher property values, increased tourism, and more robust, sustainable fisheries. A cleaner Bay will also yield priceless public goods, including better quality of life and improved public health across the region. A bay that is not improved and allowed to regress to its previous unhealthy state is a detriment to jobs, to transportation, to economic development and to recreation.

The EPA can and must remain an important partner in all of these efforts, from climate change to the Bay. Unfortunately, Pruitt appears to have other ideas. He has written that the “debate [on climate change] is far from settled” and he believes there should be “continuing debate” on the extent to which human activities are driving that change. Ignoring climate change, of course, means ignoring a root cause of sea level rise.

As Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt also filed an amicus brief urging a federal court to reject EPA-imposed limits on pollution in the Chesapeake Bay — limits that have been vital in getting us to the improved health of the bay that we experience today. Even now, though, Pruitt won’t commit to defending those limits if they are challenged in court.

Pruitt has sued the agency he now heads more than a dozen times, working closely with ideological groups and fossil fuel interests to challenge public health protections and limits on pollution. As Oklahoma’s attorney general, he zeroed out funding for environmental law enforcement — eliminating the one unit in his office that had focused on such action. And his first actions at the EPA have been true to form: already, he is working to withdraw major Obama-era water quality protections and limits on carbon pollution.

Unless we watch him closely — unless citizens from across the political spectrum actively work to hold him accountable — all of us will have to live with consequences we can ill afford.

I intend to do my part. I’ll be speaking up and pushing back and working every day to remind my colleagues in Congress and Pruitt that Hampton Roads — and our entire country — needs and deserves an effective EPA that enforces our laws and maintains existing protections. Please help me with this effort.

Donald McEachin represents the 4th District of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Originally published at pilotonline.com on 03/05/2017.