How do you get the public to participate $$$$$
- Archived: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 13:06:00 -0400 (EDT)
- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 12:29:45 -0400 (EDT)
- From: Michael.Boyd.President, CARE <mike.boyd@aspect.com>
- Subject: How do you get the public to participate $$$$$
- X-topic: Outreach
As volunteer activist the biggest barrier to the public's participation is money. All the polluters have relatively unlimited financial resources and legal resources to keep new pollution sources being built and operated. In order for the public to provide EPA meaningful and informed public participation requires the public (irrespective of race or income) have access to experts on the law and the environment. This costs money. There is ample examples of compensation mechanisms for public participation in both Federal and California State Law. The Federal Power Act allows for compensation for expenses of public participation, as does the California Public Utilities Commission. Why doesn't the the EPA have a compensation mechanism for qualified non-profit community groups like CARE? We have filed 2 EPA EAB Appeals and 2 EPA OCR appeals. Why doesn't EPA provide us a mechanism for compensation of the expenses for the legal and environmental consultants required to prepare these complaints, instead of making us go to the same impacted low-income communities-of-color to raise these funds? The current participation strategy by EPA fails to create the level playing field required to allow the public to meaningful and informed participation against such well healed polluters.
Mike Boyd-President CAlifornians for Renewable Energy, Inc. (CARE)
(408) 325-4690
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