there's a whole litany of things that just are absent, uh, from how we conduct our environmental business. >> in pennsylvania, two agencies, the state department of environmental protection and the federal agency for toxic substances and disease registry are obligated to protect public health. but they have both drawn criticism for not adequately addressing the contamination problem. >> the monitoring is overseen by the department of environmental protection. we have one site where a public water supply has been contaminated with arsenic. the epa's toxic release inventory indicates that high levels of arsenic was found in much of the ash that was dumped at this site. all right? so, you know, simply from the standpoint of the waste stream, the quality of the waste stream and what has happened to the public water supply, indicates an adequate study should have been done to determine if there is a connection between the disposal site and the well. this never did occur. the public have been simply brushed off and told, don't worry, trust us. you are adequately protected. but once again, this is being done without any adequate data to give to the public. and consequently the

back in west virginia, the state department of environmental protection declined our request for an on-camera interview as well. but in a statement told us that across the agency, violations are taken very seriously and from 2009 to 2013, their division of mining issued $15 million in penalties. we wanted to see how the industry felt about the level of regulation here, so we went to talk to the west virginia coal association - they represent 90% of the state's mining industry. bill raney is the president >> do you think the dep in west virginia does a good enough job of what it is supposed to do? >> i do and you know we struggle with them and we argue with them, but you work with them and they know what's best for west virginia. it doesn't need to be dictated from philadelphia or washington because the guys in west virginia know what's best. >> why do companies have a hard time not violating their permits? it seems like permit violations are part of the game? >> i don't know if they are part of the game. there are so many moving parts on a mining operation and so many standards to meet. you'r

i had the chairman of, or the head of the department of environmental protection sitting there, and i said, commissioner solomon, how long will it take to permit this plant? he said 60 days. we'd rehearsed, you see. [laughter] but it actually took 29 days. the reason it took 29 days was that the attitude of the agency was to help solve problems and anticipate problems, not find problems. it's the difference between how can we help and gotcha. now, we didn't waive any rules, we didn't bend any rules, we didn't, you know, avoid any environmental requirements, but it was a question of how do you -- what is your attitude, what is the attitude of the regulator toward the regulated community? .. and that is principle number five, abuse of the process, and inappropriate regulatory technique. the process itself should not be a regulatory technique. two problems and to solutions barack couple of solutions. problem number one, permitting is too costly in the process to link the. i don't have to give you examples. you know them. you have heard of them. you probably live them. how do we solve thi

department of engineering was sent down to houston and was going to solve the problem. that was a colossal and various. the science got in the way of engineering. the environmental protection agency ask upon involved later in the data. this page after the oil had returned to be contained in the environmental protection agency said he had to clean out all of this oil. that became very confusing. exactly how much oil did escape? i write about that. in large part to demonstrate how the engineering get very much confused in the external in loans says. engineering of course operates within a political environmental climate. but when there's a loss of purse active, we are really trying to wonders and how we can stop it from hot name in these other issues get in the way. >> i don't mean to leave you with this question, but the use of the word forgive in your title and the mention there is always a punitive stage when a disaster catastrophe happen, are you sick of seeing that there should not be a punitive stage? >> guest: no, the word forgive in my first book was a play on the alexander pope line. the word forgive came in and was forced for that reason. at first punitive vast tax

president has directed environmental protection agency and the department of transportation to develop fuel economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles. department of interior has announced its permitting of the 50th renewable energy related projects on federal lands during hithis administration. department of energy has issued multiple new energy efficiency standards, ma department of ag has announced seven new climate hubs to help farmers and ranchers adapt their operations to a changing climate. the administration launched in this room and not very long ago a "climategate" initiative bringing together extensive government open dated and design competitions with strong commitments from the private and philanthropic sectors in order to develop david driven -- data-driven -- i should say the climate data initiative and result of the saxo bank study were launching today is coming together, all of the information the study has to that will be available on the web, again in user-friendly accessible forms to provide people with information they will need to reduce their vulnerability. of cou

health and viability of land, of wildlife and environment -- that's at both the local and the state level. federal agencies like the environmental protection agency and the department of interior, wwell, they like to think of themselves as the ultimate protectors of our nation's skies and open spacesment but we've seen time and time again that the work being done at the state level is more reasonable, more effective, and certainly less heavyhanded. now, thousands of people are working across the west to protect their communities. these are people who live in the west, not bureaucrats in washington offices. nobody is better qualified than they are. those folks who actually live in the west because they actually walk the land, they breathe the acres the land and the air that they're trying to protect. our our report looks at the work being done by state agencies to protect not just the land they live and work on but also the people who rely on the health and the safety of that land p. as this report demonstrates, extreme regulations imposed by washington undermine -- undermine -- the work being done at the state level. whether it is to manage lands, manage natural re

the president has directed the environmental protection agency and the department of transportation to develop fuel economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles. the department of interior has announced its permitting of the 50th renewable energy project on federal lands during this administration, and the department of energy has issued multiple, new energy efficiency standards. the department of agriculture has announced seven new hubs to adapt operations to a change in climate, and the administration launched in this room and not very long ago a climate data initiative, bringing together open data and design competitions with strong commitments from the private and philanthropic communities in order to develop data-driven planning and resilience tools for communities, and i should say the climate data initiative and the results of this extraordinary study are coming together, and all of the information that the study has developed will be available on the web, again, in user-friendly, accessible forms, to provide people with the information they will need to reduce their vulnerability.