After his last election, Gov. John Engler and the Republican-controlled state legislature eliminated 19 committees that oversaw various state environmental issues - replacing them with the Department of Environmental Quality. The new department's lack of effectiveness is evident in the decreased number of environmental clean-ups since its formation. Engler's cutbacks on environmental programs is problematic and needs an immediate remedy.
The legislation would require signs informing the public of pollutants posted at polluted locations. One of the bills would also establish a system of environmental indicators to gather data on the pollution level of the state's natural resources. The legislature should pass the bills - creating the commission would boost the state's fluctuating environmental health.
Under the bills, the state would compile the data gathered from the environmental indicators to form an "environmental report card" - ensuring that the Department of Environmental Quality fulfills its duties. The data summary could serve as a method to prevent the department from neglecting some of the state's environmental issues.
Despite bipartisan backing in the state House, the bills face opposition from Republican senators. Several of those opponents stated that the bills would introduce unnecessary bureaucracy into the state's environmental program organization. However, there is no evidence that the bills' passage would spawn additional bureaucracy. The new programs would improve the state's environmental efforts over the present programs. The legislation's conservative opponents used "bureaucracy" to give it a bad image - a poor tactic that indicates petty partisanship. The senators should abandon such tactics and commit themselves to helping the state's ecological future.
Brater stated that the environmental indicators would cost the state more than the present programs. In comparison, cleaning up an environmental problem could cost the state far more than the installation of a preventative system - making the legislation's plans both economically and environmentally sound.
The state faces a serious problem that threatens its natural resources. Brater's legislation offers a viable plan to curb some of the problems and better the state's environmental bill of health. Moreover, the new policies' preventative measures would save the state money by preventing costly clean-up processes. It behooves the legislature to pass the bills; they will help the environment and promise to save the state money in the long run.