{"id":43777,"date":"2023-11-21T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=43777"},"modified":"2023-11-21T09:33:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:33:34","slug":"it-really-comes-down-to-profits-over-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/it-really-comes-down-to-profits-over-people\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt really comes down to profits over people.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To understand how two recent bills passed by the Albuquerque City Council will thwart efforts by South Valley neighborhoods to protect themselves and others from pollution, I sat down with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center\u2019s Eric Jantz. We talked about how people often claim that environmental regulations harm economic development\u2014though the history of environmental protections and economic growth in the United States doesn\u2019t support that position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve known Jantz for a pretty long time. We first met when I was assistant editor at High Country News<\/em> and he was working with the Navajo Nation to ban uranium mining from within the reservation. Back then, Jantz didn\u2019t mince words, telling me:<\/a> “I don\u2019t think the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] cares whether the Navajo Nation has said no to uranium mining or not. I\u2019m not sure that the NRC takes its trust responsibility, as a federal agency, very seriously.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jantz is still working with communities who have to deal with polluting industries. And he still doesn\u2019t beat around the bush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve mentioned before, city lawmakers passed two bills from Council Dan Lewis; one abolished the Albuquerque-Bernalillo Air Quality Control Board, a joint board of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, and the other set a moratorium on new air quality regulations until next February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese bills are specifically targeting a particular rulemaking,\u201d Jantz said. \u201cMy suspicion is, they\u2019ve been told that the [proposed Health, Environment and Equity Impact rule] will completely shut down economic development in Bernalillo County, [and] that\u2019s nonsense.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued: \u201cIt really comes down to profits over people. Squeezing the last little bit of profit out of every operation, I think, for some people matters more than the common good of being able to protect people\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can watch the full conversation on the PBS App<\/a> or YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n