GUYANA EPA

Many Guyanese shrink and shudder when they read, think of, have to deal with another development from this country’sEnvironmentalProtectionAgency(EPA). Rather damaginglytotheinterestsofthisnation,thelocalEPAisa lostsheep,acastratedbull,atoothlessguarddog.

It is neither incompetence nor indifference nor negligence of the people in the executive, managerial, and otherranksofadebonedanddefangedStateagencythathas led to this weakened condition. It is about the means and measures, the attitudes and objectives, of destructive politicians who are the worst of leaders, the most horrible decision makers that could be found anywhere, possibly at anytime.

In the United States, a nation advanced in learning, the tools of technology, rules and regulations, policies and procedures,andwithlayersofoversight,theEPAtherewas inducedintoacomatosestate. TheUSEPAtoiledunderthe crushing weight of “depleted staffing levels, persistent fundingchallengesandapreviousadministrationthatleftthe agency neglected and scientifically compromised” (“Depleted under Trump, a ‘traumatized’ E.P.A struggles withitsmission”-NewYorkTimes,January23rd).Withouta doubt,shortageoftherightpeopleinkeypositions,shortage of money to initiate and deliver on key programs, and shortageofleadershipbacking,areallguaranteedtocripple any government entity, any business, regardless of the endeavor, the responsibility Any one of those three would betraumatictoanorganization,buttohaveallthreeatwork at the same time is enough to paralyze even the best institutions.

All three are what occurred during President Donald Trump’stimeatthehelmoftheUSGovernment.Morethan 1200 scientists and policy experts left the EPA during Trump’s time. The inevitable disastrous result is that America’sEPAisstrugglingtorecover,crawlingonitshands and knees to get back on its feet, however unsteadily The EPA’sworkloadisoverwhelming,andastheNYTnoted,the agency’senforcementunitis“prosecutingfewpollutersthan atanytimeinthelasttwodecades.”

The reasons behind these troubling circumstances are clearcut. PertheNYTarticle,“Mr Trumptriedeachyearto slash the E.P.Abudget by at least 30%; it is a funding state that no organization can cope with successfully This became particularly unmanageable after a 2016 law significantly increased the agency’s duties, but Trump did notapproachCongressfortheaccompanyingresourcesthat wereurgentlyneeded.

WhatthenPresidentTrumpdidwasthathe“dismantled scienceadvisorypanels,disregardedscientificevidence,and weakenedprotectionsforpollution.”

Somebody, some subgroup, in Guyana’s PPP/C Government has done a good imitation of Donald Trump, through what has been inflicted upon our own EPA. Guyana’s EPAis not even a shell of what could be called a self-respecting State agency, but a caricature of the kind of genuine environmental sentinel that this country needs immediatelyandcompletely Wecanspeakatlengthofthe long and sorry record, as recently compiled by Guyana’s EPA, and hammer its management and people for their glaring failures. But that would be barking up the wrong tree,andwastingenergiesinthewrongdirection. Thetruth isthattheEPAhasbeenconvertedintoacrippledcreatureof the PPP/C Government, so that its parties in crime can be givenfreerein.

What the PPP/C Government has done in outstanding fashion is clear the regulatory way, and remove any human obstacles, so that ExxonMobil and its offshore partners can run whatever rackets they please out of sight. Moreover, with a gutted and paralyzed EPA politically hobbled and prevented from taking charge of its crucial duties, ExxonMobil’s downstream, land-based corporate vendors, are given the greenlight to construct and operate whatever hazardous facilities may be necessary After all, such materials and such facilities are an integral part of the upstreamoffshoreoilbeastthathastobefed.