Environmental Sea Change in Washington

By Chip Young

Breaking the log jam

Last summer, people who deal with Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation and their D.C. offices all heard the same song when inquiring about upcoming federal support for their environmental projects: “We won’t know anything until November 4th.”

The bitterness and division between the Democrats and the GOP was such that there was no chance of any bipartisan compromise in any way, shape or form.  You would probably have not had a chance to get an agreement between the two parties on funding for a guaranteed cure for cancer while the presidential campaign was in swing. 

The rule of thumb was that if John McCain was elected president, you could start going to private donors with cap and cup in hand because you would not be seeing any funding change in the Bush administration’s anti-environment stance should Senator “Drill, baby, drill” be elected.  But if Barack Obama won, look for a sea change in Washington’s actions on environmental issues.

It isn’t happening overnight.  There was already a delay in getting things up and rolling in Obamaworld due to the GOP freezing any new actions while George W. Bush remained in the White House, not to mention the lingering animosity over the result of the election, and most of Congress heading home for the holidays.  (Not that our politicos are any different from you and me—what did you honestly get done during most all of December?)

But now the log jam is breaking, and hopefully in Rhode Island’s favor. The state has always been blessed by having a D.C. delegation that is strongly supportive of environmental initiatives, in part because their constituents let them know it is a priority for them.  Rhode Islanders’ concern for the environment and their ad hoc stewardship is evident every time there is a catastrophe like the North Cape oil spill, when thousands of people come flying to the rescue as volunteers to help with the clean-up.  Now we need to have the political leaders of that constituency fighting for a variety of bills and grants that will bolster the state’s natural resources and how we plan for and manage them.

These initiatives range from Farm Bill monies (which, many people are unaware, also fund aquaculture projects) to the monitoring of Narragansett Bay to renewable/alternative energy to land conservation.  It is not an easy job in the nation’s capitol, as other senators and representatives have their knives out and sharpened to compete for limited funds in this remarkably grim economic time.  But at least the Obama administration has opened the door to these requests, a door that was usually slammed shut by the previous administration, or permitted access to only large corporate special interests.

So the next time you see Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, Patrick Kennedy or Jim Langevin during one of their visits home to The Ocean State, thank them for their past work and encourage them to keep bringing home that organic bacon. And perhaps a tip of the John Deere cap to our new president, while you are at it.