June 1, 2010

Conservatives on the oil spill: Government doesn't work, and that's OK by us

Posted by johnmcquaid under politics | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |
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There is a perverse new meme brewing on the right, a riff on the apparent impotence of the Obama administration to stop the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. It goes like this: some things are just too big and complex for the government to deal with. In fact, 21st century life itself has grown too complex and interconnected for government to deal with. So let’s scale back our expectations and our reliance on government to fix stuff. Just go with the flow, as it were.

At NRO, Yuval Levin dismissed the anger over the response to Hurricane Katrina as unjustified because “accidents happen.” David Brooks argued that technological systems had grown too complex to manage in a column last week. In a later NPR discussion with E.J. Dionne, he rejected the idea that more effective regulation might have made a difference in heading off the Deepwater Horizon disaster:

As for the regulation, if you go down the list of decisions that were made that led to this disaster, the interpreting of the tests, whether to recycle the cement, how to recycle the mud, how to set the cement, none of these things is clear to me would be solved by different regulations. There are certain decisions that have to be made on the spot on a case by case basis and they were made, in this case, by people under extreme duress and in extreme ignorance. I’m not sure a regulator 3,000 miles away could really have done a better job.

It’s interesting how Brooks can take a good point (the problems of growing techno-complexity) and, in a sentence, turn it into a dumb, knee-jerk point. (more…)

 

November 11, 2008

Restoring coastal restoration

Posted by johnmcquaid under environment, government | Tags: , , , |
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In my previous post on the bureaucratic inflighting over Louisiana’s coastal restoration efforts, I took a “the system’s broken” point of view. Chris Macaluso, a spokesman for the state’s coastal restoration efforts, sent me an email that elaborates on some of the ways the system is broken. The state government – which ought to have strong voice in how billions of dollars is spent to rebuild, well, a large area of the state – is effectively marginalized by the Corps of Engineers, which is jealously guarding its own turf and funding.

In a nutshell: A federal task force in which the Corps plays a major role says a marsh-rebuilding project that diverts silt-laden water from the Mississippi into the wetlands must be shut down because it’s piling up silt in a ship anchorage. That requires dredging, and there’s no money for dredging. So, no marsh rebuilding. Macaluso:

I assure you, there is no one more upset and disgusted with this decision to shut down this diversion than the state of Louisiana and we will do all we can to keep it from being closed. We feel there was no definitive evidence shown that this diversion was the cause of the situation. The Corps said repeatedly that the river is a dynamic system, which means the sediment could have come from any number of sources, especially considering the multiple flood events in the Mississippi River this year.

The state has offered $10.9 billion for dredging, but it also wants a scientific study to determine the source of the silting.

But to put things in perspective: the Corps has been building levees and dredging channels in the Louisiana marshes for 150 years – something that has greatly accelerated the erosion of those marshes. Now that those huge errors are being addressed – with state and federal money – the Corps wants the state to pony up the dredging money, a price tag that could run into the billions. Among the arguments: the Corps has no authority to dredge anchorages – only waterways. That leaves it up to local harbors. And so on down the bureaucratic rabbit hole.

Rebuilding Louisiana’s marshes is a difficult enough task on its own – one that will likely fail if it isn’t done right, and done fast. If the agencies involved – particularly the Corps – can’t exercise a little leadership and avoid this kind of endless, mind-numbing brinksmanship, it’s just not going to happen.

This is an ominous sign for another reason. If the signals are right, the Obama administration is likely to spend a lot of money on infrastructure as part of its economic stimulus package. The Corps of Engineers is one of the nation’s biggest infrastructure agencies, and it has repeatedly shown it doesn’t have its priorities straight.

 

November 7, 2008

A diversion on coastal restoration

Posted by johnmcquaid under environment, government | Tags: , , , , , |
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It seems that in the fraying marshes of southern Louisiana, we can’t afford to maintain shipping and coastal restoration at the same time. Louisiana’s biggest freshwater diversion project – essentially, a set of gates in the Mississippi River levees that let river water to flow over marshlands, depositing much-needed silt – must be closed because it’s affecting ship anchorages nearby. That requires dredging, which would cost $140 million over the next 15 years, and there’s no money available for that:

The West Bay diversion allows 20,000 cubic feet per second of sediment-laced water to flow into the bay, with a goal of creating 10,000 acres of wetlands during its first 20 years of operation. The original plan was to expand it to 50,000 cubic feet per second in a few years to speed the filling process.

A Plaquemines Parish official warned the state board that threatening the diversion sends the wrong message to Congress at a time when Louisiana needs billions of federal dollars for coastal restoration projects.

“If you send out this message that you are considering closing the largest diversion in Louisiana, what you’re looking at is a political disaster in Congress, ” said P. J. Hahn, the parish director of coastal zone management.

Obviously, something must be worked out here – and probably will be. The coastline is disappearing at an alarming clip, and there’s no room for error on coastal restoration. If New Orleans and surrounding towns are to remain viable places to live, ambitious projects must get underway immediately. And the ones already in place must stay open. This snag, however, is huge; if marsh-rebuilding projects must pay their own freight on dredging, their price tags increase sevenfold, from $700 million to $4.9 billion.

The real problem here is not deciding who will pay that extra $4 billion, however. It’s the dearth of leadership on this pressing national issue. Currently, these decisions are in the hands of … no one, really. They’re shared between the Army Corps of Engineers and various local, state and federal agencies and commissions. The Corps, which does the actual work of coastal restoration and dredging, is notorious for its logy decision-making and its deference to shipping interests. The other agencies wrangle amongst themselves and with the Corps over funding and priorities. But there’s no strategic political vision of how all this works, no one who can line everybody up and say “jump.” It’s an example of a much bigger challenge: the sorry mismatch of our current government institutions to looming, giant environmental problems. Paging President Obama.

Note: The above quote from the Times-Picayune story incorrectly describes the task force that voted to shut the marsh project as a “state board.” The task force is composed of representatives of various federal agencies. The state has non-voting participation.

 

July 29, 2008

The White House reality manipulation project

Posted by johnmcquaid under George W. Bush, government, science | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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For the past eight years, the way the U.S. government communicates with citizens – the people who pay for it, and to whom it’s ultimately accountable – has been systematically politicized, corrupted and degraded. Sound over-the-top? Just take the two examples in the news today:

1. A Justice Department spokesman committed misconduct, according to an Inspector General’s report, by lying about the politicization of hiring practies. We know the sad story of Monica “what is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?” Goodling. When a reporter called the DOJ press office to ask about this, John Nowaki called the notion “crap” and wrote up a categorical denial. (Fortunately, no one was dumb enough to sign off on it, so it wasn’t released.) Later, when questioned by investigators, like everyone else, Nowacki admitted the right-wing vetting was going on.

2. The EPA has tightened its grip on career managers, instructing them to refer all questions from the media, congressional investigators, and even the EPA IG to political appointees. This on the heels of an April report by the Union of Concerned Scientists that showed that political interference in the work of scientists is running rampant at the agency.

In the overall scheme of things, these are minor stories. But they reflect a corrosive trend - the government-wide project originating from the White House to control information – i.e., to make facts that conflict with the Bush administration’s political aims go away. As a political strategy, this was dumb – White House attempts to redraw reality on Iraq and Katrina failed so spectacularly the president and vice president lost all credibility with the public.

But the reality-denial project went on anyway, and its damage should not be underestimated. The one remaining area where the Bush administration has power is in its ability to mold and manipulate the bureaucracy in the service of various GOP interest groups. This goes on below the radar, every day, across the government. A thousand Henry Waxmans, ProPublicas, and concerned NGOs couldn’t uncover it all. And it will certainly increase in pitch and intensity in the days between now and Jan. 20, as Bush appointees try to lock in various rules that favor their constituencies and finally, cover their own tracks.

The question going forward is, how much damage has been done, and how easily can it be undone? Many mechanisms of accountability have broken down. The public thinks – knows – that government officials, never the most credible of voices, habitually lie.

Walking this back will take more than just clearing out the Bush appointees (I’m talking about an Obama administration – it’s doubtful McCain, however earnest he may be about government accountability, would conduct a thorough housecleaning). The government’s own credibility on matters of fact – science in particular – has been eroded. Bad habits in conflict with an increasingly information-rich, transparent age – classifying everything under the sun, massaging data, gagging professionals – are hard to break because they have political advantages for whoever’s in office.

 

May 5, 2008

Bush’s domestic legacy

Posted by johnmcquaid under George W. Bush | Tags: , , |
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I agree with this.

Just about the only thing the Bush administration and Republican Congress were good at was constituent service for a constellation of business interests. It’s a remarkable record when you think about it: virtually every single Bush domestic policy initiative, including those meant to address crises, has been a giveaway to some big industry – oil, pharmaceuticals, financial services – dressed up as a solution to some problem confronting voters.

The result, besides an abiding cynicism about government, is an impenetrable tangle of tax breaks, subsidies and regulatory exemptions that because of its sheer complexity may never be undone.

 

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