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Daugaard Forks Tongue on EPA Regulations, Funding for Roads and Schools

I must give John Tsitrian kudos for catching Governor Dennis Daugaard in a brilliant contradiction. In Tuesday's Rapid City Journal, Governor Daugaard responds to a question about South Dakota's weak regulations on uranium mining by saying, "I don't like the notion that the state duplicates federal regulation. So, to the extent that the Atomic Energy Commission or the EPA is looking at this, I think we should let it run its course."

Tsitrian goes just seven months back and finds the Governor saying pretty much the opposite in a press release warning the feds off using the Clean Air Act to impose more regulations on power plants and calling the feds to recognize states as "co-regulators." Hee hee!

Further verbal chicanery lies in Daugaard's feigned preference for EPA regulations of uranium mining. His pal Senator Mike Rounds wants to eliminate the EPA; where would that leave our uranium mining regulations?

Inspired by Tsitrian to jump on the contradiction bandwagon, I scroll up through the Tuesday RCJ article and find another obvious whopper. Asked by RCJ's Meredith Colias about why he left education out of his State of the State Address and his funding priorities in favor of roads, Governor Daugaard dismissed complaints thus:

Bottom line is, you can’t spend money that you don’t have....

I try to give an increase to education every year … so I’m doing what I can with the resources available [Gov. Dennis Daugaard, interview with Meredith Colias, Rapid City Journal, 2015.01.20].

Um, Dennis? You don't have the money to fix the roads, either. You're proposing a plan that goes and gets more money (and still lets the roads get worse). Tell us again: why can you go get money that we don't have now for roads but not go get money that we don't have now for schools?

22 Comments

  1. Nick Nemec 2015.01.22

    Priorities.

  2. larry kurtz 2015.01.22

    Hypocrisy.

  3. Owen reitzel 2015.01.22

    Maybe a reporter should ask DD that

  4. Donald Pay 2015.01.22

    Denny, no one is buying that bullshit.

    Obviously Daugaard is willfully ignorant of about forty years of history on this topic. His minders long ago made it impossible for South Dakota to do anything but duplicate EPA regulations. And this is guaranteed: Daugaard won't actually do anything to change state law to allow the state to have regulations that are more strict the EPA standards. Right now there is no way for the state to do anything but duplicate the standards. Change the law and that could change. But his minders won't allow that.

    Another thing Denny hasn't done is to give back the money EPA gives the state to operate DENR, yet he doesn't think the state should "duplicate" EPA. Really? But he's getting money from the EPA to operate environmental programs that are by law the same as EPA's regulation.

    I think those statements could be used to have the federal government hold back all; the money it gives the state to operate environmental programs. I'd like to see a group out there open up a citizen against the State of South Dakota using some of Denny's statements to have the federal government investigate and withhold federal money.

    The state doesn't duplicate federal regulations on mining. Under state law, we can have pretty tough regulations on that if we wanted. His minders in the China-Canada mining cabal don't want that, so Denny doesn't want that.

    Denny is an idiot.

    Seriously someone in South Dakota needs to file a complaint with EPA about the way South Dakota is running its environmental programs. Denny has pretty much said he's pocketing the money but not willing to do the job.

  5. Disgusted Dakotan 2015.01.22

    Amazing how our Chicago Lawyer Crony-Capitalist in Chief can always find more money to expand state government and funnel money to people via the liberal ideas of government funding economic development.

    This is where the Liberals learn to wrongly hate conservatives by fakes like Daugaard claiming to be conservative to fool the voters and then enacting policies and programs that fly in the face of conservative Republicanism.

  6. Donald Pay 2015.01.22

    Seriously, someone needs to brief Denny on this. The "Atomic Energy Commission" doesn't exist, and hasn't for about 40 years. What is Daugaard talking about? Does he mean the Nuclear Regulatory Commission? The guy is just winging it. He has no idea what he's talking about. Seriously, the guy is neck deep in trying to weasel money for a high-level radioactive waste repository, and he's talking about a federal agency that went out of business 40 years ago because it was so corrupt.

  7. larry kurtz 2015.01.22

    Don, Gov. DD follows me on twitter: just sent him the link to your comment.

  8. caheidelberger Post author | 2015.01.22

    Donald, how much of DENR's budget does EPA cover?

  9. larry kurtz 2015.01.22

    Gee, Cory this is the internet: are you fingers broken?

  10. caheidelberger Post author | 2015.01.22

    O.K., if all of the federal dollars are EPA dollars, then the Governor's 2016 proposal, which offers no increase to DENR over 2015, has $7.88M out of $23.3M coming from the EPA. 33.8%. Sound right, Donald?

  11. larry kurtz 2015.01.22

    I remember a 37% number somewhere buried in ip but can't find it now.

  12. grudznick 2015.01.22

    Mr. Pay, do you still live in Pierre?

  13. Donald Pay 2015.01.22

    Yeah, I'd say that's about right for the entire department, but the federal program regulatory function (water quality, air quality, solid waste) used to be at least 50 percent.

  14. lrads1 2015.01.22

    DENR's FY15 budget is a little over 25% state tax money, balance is federal and fees.

  15. larry kurtz 2015.01.23

    The US Environmental Protection Agency contributed over $47 million in funding programs for South Dakota in 2012.

  16. mike from iowa 2015.01.23

    DD-I don't hate conservatives because of Daugaard. No way,Jose. Wingnuts are easy to hate,just because.

  17. larry kurtz 2015.01.23

    "There are three ways to mine uranium: underground mining — the grandfather of mining — open pit mining, which was prevalent in South Dakota in the 1950s and ’60s, and ISL, which is what Azarga proposes for the Dewey-Burdock project. In order to harvest the uranium, it would be mined through the aquifer and pumped to the surface. In order to extract the uranium, the substance attaches itself to resin beads and is then taken to a processing plant, purified and made into yellowcake for use. Azarga has stated it plans to build a processing plant on site as well as market its services to other regional uranium mines."

    http://www.custercountynews.com/cms/news/story-712696.html

  18. jerry 2015.01.23

    Republican head cheerleader Daugaard does not like to fish for Walleye pike nor does he like to eat them. In fact, republican legislators do not like water either. This is what is going into the Missouri River as we speak. This will have an affect on drinking water for west river as well as tourism and all that goes with the experience of living in South Dakota. I give you the future with oil. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/22/3614226/north-dakota-brine-spill/

  19. Jenny 2015.01.23

    I think Daugaard needs to sit down and have a coffee talk with teachers - wouldn't hurt. Have a teacher day at the capital.

Comments are closed.