WASHINGTON -- Relations between Arkansas and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have soured in recent years and the federal agency is to blame, a state official told a U.S. Senate panel Wednesday.
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Becky Keogh, director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, joined colleagues from South Dakota and West Virginia in sharply criticizing the EPA during a meeting of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Environmental officials from Vermont and Delaware also spoke, but they generally praised the federal agency.
During her 6½-minute opening statement, Keogh used food metaphors to describe problems that have arisen.
"For decades, we have successfully worked with EPA. ... Both the EPA and the states had a relatively balanced seat at the table. And, as we are known to do in the South, we would all sit around the table and have a good old-fashioned meal. There would be lively debate, ample servings and we would cooperate and prepare a meal together," she said. "Now, we have an increasingly diminished role in the menu selection and meal preparation. We are often forced to eat what is served."
She also described the relationship as "a broken marriage" and as a "progressive dinner party gone bad."
"States have recognized an unprecedented level of federal actions," she said. "To borrow a saying in the South, we have more on our plate than we can say grace over."
"The sheer number of mandates and deadlines further complicated by the complexity of the rules leaves us in a position where [we're] being served appetizer, soup, salad, main course and dessert -- all at the same time. And if we do not clean our crumbs, we are banished from the table," she said.
Later, Keogh joined the other panelists in fielding lawmakers' questions at a hearing the Senate committee titled: "Cooperative Federalism: State Perspectives on EPA Regulatory Actions and the Role of States as Co-regulators."
Republican senators expressed sympathy with those seeking more state control. Democratic senators voiced doubts that high-pollution states would curb emissions sufficiently without federal oversight.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., who serves on the committee, asked Keogh questions about the challenges the state faces and criticized the federal government for forcing states to pick up the tab for "unfunded mandates."
"I think that's something that we can all agree on is a real problem," he said.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., defended the need for the federal involvement on environmental matters.
But she also drew laughter when she told the Arkansan: "Ms. Keogh, I'd love to be invited to your house for dinner. And it would be fun."
Boxer noted that some states create very little pollution but have air-quality problems caused by factories in neighboring states and regions. They need the federal government to play a role, she said.
"If you were one of those states that got a huge amount of pollution from a next-door state, which did nothing to prevent it, would you put yourself in the shoes of Delaware or Rhode Island or these other states?"
Keogh said collaboration can sometimes solve those types of problems.
"Our states work together when we have a situation like that. We have worked with our neighboring states," she said.
Boxer said having the states resolve the disputes is "not realistic at all," adding, "That's the reason why we passed federal legislation. Under Nixon, I might say."
Metro on 03/10/2016