Snyder Splitting the DNRE Again

by: Muskegon Critic/Blogging for Michigan

Ain't it funny how the bleats for "Smaller Government" only apply when it's not a "Republican Government?" I'm not particularly pleased that Rick Snyder is claiming his first executive order is to separate the Department of Natural Resources and Environment back into the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Quality, just one year after Granholm joined the two. The organizations were first split up under Engler, and was partially the brain child of Russ Harding, resident Big Oil shill at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He helped write the original executive order to create two agencies from one back in 1995 and was put in charge of the Department of Environmental Quality...a organization whose stated mission he despised, but whose power he loved for the revolving door of big-polluter permits he could rubber stamp. Russ Harding is one of the fellows who has been pushing to lift the Great Lakes drilling ban and start drilling for oil and natural gas under Lake Michigan again. He's also very thoroughly against renewable energy. Somehow I don't think this guy had the best interest in the sustainability of Michigan's environment and natural resources at heart... Engler hatched the DEQ in the mid-1990s to give himself a direct conduit to decisions about pollution permits requested by development and pollution interests. He chose for the director's job Russell Harding, who never met a polluter he didn't like. Almost instantly, the new DEQ became a "Permits 'R Us" for business. Source ...so naturally I'm a bit leery about Snyder going back to something Mr. Harding helped create in the first place. Nothing good can come of it. Defending Michgian's natural resources AND protecting the environment go hand in hand. The unity of those two missions isn't something to be scrapped for the expedience of licensing. No sir. I don't like it. Earlier in the year, prior to the election, there were rumors Snyder may actually tap Harding to be the director of the DNRE. It's likely, though, that Harding already has the ear of Snyder on these types of issues. M.C.L Comment: Where are the jobs Mr.Snyder??