LANSING – The Michigan Legislature might have given Clean Corporate Citizen Program enrollees too much protection, at least one observer said in comments on the state’s federal Clean Air Act implementation plan.
New law guiding the program allows enrollees to avoid penalties if they can show a violation was not intentional or due to gross negligence. It also provides them fewer inspections and requires the Department of Environmental Quality to give them advanced notice of those inspections.
Environmental consultant Alex Sagady, who operates the enviro-mich email group, said all three of those provisions violate the federal rules.
The state operates its air quality program within the federal rules, and Mr. Sagady said those rules require all provisions of air permits to be enforceable. The new act, he said, would allow permit-holders to essentially escape enforcement.
The DEQ has said the new law complies with the federal rules by expressly ensuring nothing in the law interferes with the state’s enforcement powers.
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