Who's pandering to whom?

In an editorial today entitled “City Council pandering is wrong,” The Erie Times-News chided city fathers for voting to ask the builder of the proposed “tires-to-energy” plant at the old Hammermill site “to submit an environmental impact statement.”

According to the editorial, the city “can’t require Erie Renewable Energy LLC to undertake the exercise. The fact that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will require the company to do an environmental impact statement didn't matter to council members Rubye Jenkins-Husband, David Gonzalez, Pat Cappabianca and Jessica Horan-Kunco” who voted in favor of the requirement, the editorial said.

While it’s true that the city can’t require the firm to prepare and submit an environmental impact statement (EIS), contrary to the editorial, neither can the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Any mandate for an EIS can only come from the federal government under the provisions of the 28-year-old National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA). While the federal government has delegated certain land, water and air protection responsibilities to the various states within their jurisdictions, only the feds can order sponsors of projects to submit data required under NEPA bearing on environmental impacts to designated federal agencies.

It is the U.S. Interior Dept., the lead federal agency, which is ultimately responsible for preparing and issuing an EIS, and may require the sponsor to pay for the costs. Do your homework, Bryan.