Dr. Donald van der Vaart should be placed in a national environmental position. Finally we have a regulator with some common sense.
What do liberal papers call this in front page articles? - "polarizing"
NC’s new environmental regulator is polarizing figure
Donald van der Vaart is the state’s first environmental director to come from within the state agency he is now running. A career middle manager, van der Vaart was plucked out of obscurity in January and put in charge of his former bosses.
In his short tenure as Secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, the engineer with a law degree has wasted no time in promoting his conservative brand of environmentalism.
Within two weeks of taking the top job at the state’s environmental agency, van der Vaart jettisoned a pair of Republican deputies, including a former state legislator.
In recent weeks van der Vaart has been stumping for nuclear energy, even though the agency he oversees has little say in which power plants are built in North Carolina. And he frequently expresses doubts about the environmental benefits of wind and solar farms.
He is now spoiling for a court fight with the Environmental Protection Agency over greenhouse gas regulations that van der Vaart has denounced as a federal “takeover of our electricity system.”
Van der Vaart says his philosophy is straightforward: balancing environmentalism and economics.
“What it really is protecting the environment while we keep energy affordable,” van der Vaart said during a recent interview. “Because energy prices are absolutely fundamental for developing good paying jobs and as a weapon against poverty.
(More at above url)
What do liberal papers call this in front page articles? - "polarizing"
NC’s new environmental regulator is polarizing figure
- Van der Vaart touts nuclear energy, is skeptical of renewables
- Supporters laud his focus on economic aspects of regulation
- Critics say secretary is overstepping his bounds with his statements
Donald van der Vaart is the state’s first environmental director to come from within the state agency he is now running. A career middle manager, van der Vaart was plucked out of obscurity in January and put in charge of his former bosses.
In his short tenure as Secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, the engineer with a law degree has wasted no time in promoting his conservative brand of environmentalism.
Within two weeks of taking the top job at the state’s environmental agency, van der Vaart jettisoned a pair of Republican deputies, including a former state legislator.
In recent weeks van der Vaart has been stumping for nuclear energy, even though the agency he oversees has little say in which power plants are built in North Carolina. And he frequently expresses doubts about the environmental benefits of wind and solar farms.
He is now spoiling for a court fight with the Environmental Protection Agency over greenhouse gas regulations that van der Vaart has denounced as a federal “takeover of our electricity system.”
Van der Vaart says his philosophy is straightforward: balancing environmentalism and economics.
“What it really is protecting the environment while we keep energy affordable,” van der Vaart said during a recent interview. “Because energy prices are absolutely fundamental for developing good paying jobs and as a weapon against poverty.
(More at above url)
