sean
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon
|
 Posted: Mon Feb 28, 05 12:04 pm Post subject: Tougher penalties for polluters.....maybe |
 
|
Corporate polluters will have to pay for their damage
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
28 February 2005
Labour is considering going into the election with a commitment to impose tougher penalties on companies and individuals who pollute the environment.
The most far-reaching proposal in a new Environmental Justice Bill would give a right to communities to order an environmental impact assessment of developments such as new factories, roads or waste incineration plants.
Harriet Harman, the Solicitor General, who is backing the policy, also wants new powers for the Environment Agency to demand court orders to force polluters to clean up the rivers or land they have spoiled.
The proposals could upset the business community, but Ms Harman has privately told colleagues that they will be a vote-winner with many Labour supporters who believe tougher action is needed to tackle the problems of polluted Britain.
They are due to go to a meeting of "green" ministers chaired by Elliott Morley, an Environment minister, on 8 March. However, one green campaigner who has been consulted said: "She has got to persuade 17 to 20 ministerial colleagues and get it past the Better Business Regulation Task Force, the Downing Street team, and the Treasury people. It is not going to be easy."
The Environment Agency prosecuted 266 companies in 2003 and the courts imposed fines on 11 company directors for polluting rivers, fields, and other parts of the countryside. But Friends of the Earth criticised the courts for handing out fines that are dwarfed by the profits of major companies.
FOE said Sir Terry Leahy, the chief executive of Tesco, earned more in one day than the �10,000 fine levied against his company after fuel leaked into the groundwater from three fuel storage tanks at the Tower Park Tesco in Poole, Dorset. In its report, the Environment Agency said the leak continued for more than six months, adding: "Pollution of the groundwater can be irreversible or at best costly and time-consuming to clear up."
A fine of �60,000 was imposed on BP for allowing tens of thousands of litres of fuel to leak from a service station's tank into Luton's groundwater. FOE dismissed the punishment, saying: "It is equivalent to what BP's group chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley, earns in just 4.5 working days. The incident posed a threat to Luton's drinking water because the petrol station is close to one of the town's abstraction points."
Mike Childs, FOE's campaigns director, said: "The Government needs to get tougher on illegal pollution and make sure the big corporate polluters are fined amounts that get noticed in the boardroom.
"But this is not enough on its own. The poorest in society bear the brunt of the worst pollution and much of this is legally allowed. A radical third term for Labour would pledge to tackle environmental injustices by making sure that pollution doesn't hit the poorest hardest."
Campaigners claim that poor areas are subjected to the highest levels of pollution because they tend to be closer to heavy industry and motorways.
Tony Blair has made climate change,a priority for Britain's presidency of the G8 and the EU later this year, but little priority has been given to proposals for higher penalties for polluters, which Michael Meacher promised in September 1998 when he was environment secretary.
Mr Meacher said then that the fines for those who continued polluting were "pathetic". The average fine then was �2,500. It is now estimated to be around �4,000. |
|
View Latest Posts