Opening Blog

This is my first-person blog.  I plan on taking you behind the scenes to show you how your government really works (and mostly how it doesn’t work).  While NWEA’s website and public materials—comments on proposed rules, briefs to courts, letters to agencies—are objective accounts, this blog will be a personal account of the extreme frustrations of being an engaged citizen.  So, as accurate as ever but a bit subjective . . . sometimes known as spitting mad.

Where to start?  I think with an amusing anecdote.  Shortly after Donald Trump was elected President, my husband said to me, “the States are really going to have to step up and do the right thing.”  Of course, he was right; States should have seen how the Scott Pruitt-led EPA was going to tear down the regulatory strength of the Clean Water Act and other laws.  And States, such as Oregon and Washington, generally seen as environmentally progressive—if not some sort of “eco-topia”—should have stepped up.  But it was funny.  Because the actions and, mostly inactions, of these states are nothing more than a history of not controlling water pollution.  The idea that they would “step up” now rather than gladly take advantage of a weakened EPA under Trump was absurd.  I wish that he had been right.  He wasn’t.

What won’t I talk about?  I won’t reveal confidential negotiations with the agencies and polluters that NWEA sues.  And sometimes I will have to tiptoe around issues that are in current litigation.

I invite suggestions of topics or questions to answer.  And, as I gather my stride, I will likely invite some “guest speakers” to talk about their experiences.