PTPA has been organizing regular meetings between its members and EPA officials to talk about increasing the benefits for program participants -- or, as some enviros put it, adding more and bigger loopholes.
Minutes from a September 2004 meeting contain both accolades for and gripes about Performance Track. Praise from one member reads, "We had an inspector at our facility and called the regional coordinator, and within 15 minutes the inspector was called and told to leave the facility."
Not all participants have been so lucky, though. Another complained, "Inspector came to Performance Track facility knowing it was a Performance Track member. They said that they had to inspect anyway because they are required to inspect every major facility every so often. What happened to low priority for routine inspection? Message is not being relayed."
Walke worries about the changes PTPA might help push through, saying, "Never in my career have I seen a trade group form around a certain internal EPA initiative." He says plans now being drawn up at the EPA would expand the program to include partnerships with state-level environmental agencies, which would also agree to reduce or eliminate inspections and give other benefits to member companies. (Already nine states have signed memoranda of agreement to adopt Performance Track, and more partnerships are in the works.) Another proposal would expedite permitting for projects such as factory expansions.
Even if these changes were headed off, Walke and his cohorts would remain skeptical of a system that doles out a bundle of carrots and stashes away the firm stick of law enforcement.
Says Walke, "I seriously question the appropriateness of any program that offers deregulation as an incentive to drive superior environmental performance."
Amanda Griscom Little writes Grist's Muckraker column on environmental politics and policy and interviews green luminaries for the magazine. Her articles on energy and the environment have also appeared in publications ranging from Rolling Stone to The New York Times Magazine.
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