Time Again for Polluter Pays?
by Guest Blogger, 12/8/2005
Congress Daily is reporting that 23 members of the House are going to hold a press conference today to announce a bipartisan bill to reinstate the industry taxes that made Superfund a "polluter pays" program. Superfund worked for years because the polluters themselves were held responsible for cleaning up after themselves when they left toxic garbage in the environment. Without these industry fees, that burden is shifted onto the innocent: the taxpayers, who are the very same people who are subject to the potential harms from industry's hazardous spew. "Supporters say the expiration of those fees has depleted a $3.8 billion federal Superfund cleanup surplus, slowed cleanup efforts and increased costs to taxpayers from $300 million to $1.2 billion," Congress Daily explains.
The latest twist, according to Congress Daily, is that the bill to be announced will earmark a portion of the revenue for post-Katrina cleanup efforts.
