Meet the environmental “regulator” who hates science: John Skvarla’s coal ash mess
n 2012, North Carolina’s newly elected Republican governor, Pat McCrory, announced the appointment of a businessman named John Skvarla to head the state’s environmental regulatory agency. For several reasons, the move worried environmentalists. Skvarla has expressed doubts about the science behind climate change and has peddled the obscure theory that crude oil is an infinite, renewable resource. He has insisted that the agency he now leads has been long regarded as the primary obstacle to economic growth in the state. Last summer he stated that if environmentalists were to get their way “we’d live in lean-tos and wear loincloths.” And the day before assuming the leadership of the agency (N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, or DENR), Skvarla said he knew little about coal ash pollution, an issue dear to environmentalists in North Carolina.
Upon entering office early last year, Skvarla wrote a number of caveats into DENR’s mission statement and aggressively promoted the agency as serving the interests of its “customers.” According to Michael Burkhard, who left DENR in late May, Skvarla’s management left little to interpret: The agency was now serving the interests of industry. “The message was that we shouldn’t hold anyone accountable or responsible,” Burkhard says. “They told us that industry and business do a better job of regulating themselves than we do.”
As an environmental senior specialist within what was then known as the Division of Water Quality, Burkhard was charged with investigating contamination in rivers, streams and lakes. He says that, in the short time before he left the agency, the new administration weakened the power of his regional unit to make its own decisions on enforcement actions with a new policy that required him to submit his proposed penalties on violators to DENR headquarters in Raleigh for ultimate approval.“DENR is filled with scientists who care deeply about the work they do,” says Burkhard. “During my last few months there, morale hit rock bottom.”
Amy Adams, another former employee, says that, in order to control an increasingly disillusioned workforce, Skvarla’s team created management culture that little tolerated the expression of grievances or criticism. “I had never seen state government run like this,” Adams tells Salon.“They threatened our jobs, they said ‘if you’re not fully on board with our new mission — if you whine and complain — you better get your résumé ready.’ People were terrified to speak out.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/05/meet_the_environmental_regulator_who_hates_science_john_skvarlas_coal_ash_mess/
An excellent, disturbing article.
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