States, as co-regulators, are and ought to be partners with appropriate federal agencies and with each other in a federal environmental protection system. Meaningful and substantial involvement of States by federal agencies is critical to both the development and implementation of environmental and public health programs.
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) - the national non-profit, non-partisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders - supports early, meaningful, and substantial State involvement in the development and implementation of environmental statutes, policies, rules, programs, reviews, joint priority setting, budget proposals, budget processes, and strategic planning, and calls upon the Congress and appropriate federal agencies to provide expanded opportunities for such involvement.
ECOS specifically calls on the U.S. EPA to consult integrally with the States’ environmental agencies in the priority setting, planning, and budgeting of the Offices of the U.S. EPA as these Offices conduct these efforts, in preference to after these efforts have been discussed and drafted.
ECOS believes that such integrated consultation will increase mutual understanding, improve State-federal relations, remove barriers, reduce costs, and more quickly improve the nation’s environmental quality.
Comments (1)
State environmental agencies DO report to and work with the EPA. Why create another body to get involved with? This is already a nightmare for those of us who must do weekly and monthly reports, attend mandatory meetings, and this is just another regulatory nightmare in the making, it sounds to me. Why have a non-profit agency telling those of us what to do that we are already doing?
Hogwash.