Shelley Moore Capito Calls For Revival Of ‘Dormant’ Industrial Hubs Through Superfund Cleanups

3 months ago

At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) discussed the impacts of cleaning up superfund sites on former industrial powerhouses.

Transcript

00:00I'm going to start with questions. I'm going to start with Catherine Scarlett.

00:04First, you've held significant positions in the federal government relating to NEPA,

00:09so you know this well, and permitting processes. In each of these roles,

00:13you've developed experience of what's working and what isn't. So given your

00:17expertise, what has motivated you to take on this role, and how has your past

00:22experience prepared you for this? Thank you for that question, Chairman Capito. I

00:27was excited to take on this role because mainly because all three branches of the

00:34federal government recently have indicated that the NEPA process is

00:37broken and needs to be reformed. As I stated in my opening statement, I have spent

00:43nearly the last decade working on the interagency process and trying to get the

00:49environmental review process more efficient and more timely. So given the

00:55directive of Congress, I wanted to return to CEQ so that I could faithfully

01:00implement those amendments to the National Environmental Policy Act.

01:04Well, I think response of all three branches being dissatisfied with where

01:10we've been and where we are, we need certainty more than anything. And I know

01:14with you at the helm, we can get some of that. And let me ask you a subsequent

01:19question. In Division C, Title III of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, Congress

01:24passed the first large-scale bipartisan changes to NEPA in almost 30 years.

01:29However, it is widely viewed that the previous administration did not faithfully

01:34implement the changes in NEPA included in Division C, Title III of that law. As members

01:40in both chambers and both political parties continue to seek reforms to support more

01:44efficient environmental reviews, will you commit to faithfully implementing—this is

01:49important, I think, to both sides of the dais here—any additional permitting and

01:54environmental review reforms passed into law consistent with the statutory language

02:00and the intent of Congress?

02:01Yes, Chairman, I do commit to faithfully implementing any new provisions passed by Congress.

02:09Mr. Hall, my ranking member took you to task pretty good in his opening statement,

02:15I would say. But one of the statements that he made, I just wanted to give you a chance

02:19to respond because he mentioned that your wish would be for it to make it easier for the

02:28polluters to pollute. Is that a true statement in your opinion?

02:34Thank you, Chairman, for the opportunity to respond to that. And I appreciate the opportunity

02:39to meet with you earlier. No, that is not a true statement. As I mentioned in my opening

02:44statement, when I—first day on the job, I—well, the second day, I actually had an all-staff

02:50meeting with all of OECA and told them that it was my goal to continue to enforce the law

02:57and that we would continue to enforce it. And I think the record bears that out. And the

03:02administrator, when he had his hearing on the budget, was able to share some statistics that

03:09show that OECA and EPA have continued to enforce the law. So I'm happy to get into those, but

03:14I think they show, for instance, on civil case conclusions that there are far more in this—the

03:20time of this administration than the previous time of last year. And on the criminal side,

03:25there are also some very compelling statistics that show there—there have been four more case

03:30conclusions, including sentencing and criminal penalties during the time of this administration.

03:35Yeah, let me let me ask you about the Superfund cleanups, because you mentioned this in your

03:38in your opening statement, and how to improve—we spend a lot of time trying to improve the CERCLA

03:46implementation. We have some Superfund sites in our—you mentioned they're on the books,

03:51I'm sure you do too—on the books for years and never quite seem to get there. Will you have a direct

03:58role in negotiating these agreements, and how would you approach the use of these tools to accelerate

04:03our cleanups? Yes, thank you, Chairman. So Superfund enforcement is a priority of this administration,

04:10of the administrator, of the deputy administrator on down to me when I was the acting assistant

04:14administrator, and if confirmed would continue to be a major priority of my tenure. So I think that we

04:21would use all the tools available. I know that this committee had a hearing a little not not too long

04:27ago on Superfund and Superfund enforcement, where some of those tools were discussed, including various

04:32agreements like mixed funding agreements. So I think that we would continue to use all the tools available

04:38and push it forward. I know the Office of Land and Emergency Management has a goal of expediting

04:43cleanup, and my commitment would be for—we could be right there with them, increasing the pace of

04:49remediation and making sure that the Superfund program is funded through appropriate and aggressive

04:56enforcement. Coming from a state, much like Ohio, where we were basically major parts of the industrial

05:04revolution, major manufacturing sites that are now have gone dormant and are really ripe for economic

05:13development, but cannot get through the environmental, the Superfund if they've been designated. This is

05:19extremely important to really the heartland of the country that powered this nation and really brought

05:26us to where we are today to be able to be part of the new revolution of technology and other things that are

05:32coming and advanced manufacturing. So I appreciate your attention, and I'll—

Shelley Moore Capito Calls For Revival Of ‘Dormant’ Industrial Hubs Through Superfund Cleanups

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended