B.N.N. Says G.O.B. Should Allocate More Funds to Help Protect the Environment

The B.N.N. also called on government to allocate the necessary financial resources to the D.O.E. and other agencies address issues like the New River pollution. Their recommendation is that the funding should come from the Environmental Management Fund and proceeds from Environmental Tax. Salas says it is laid out in black in white that some of these funds can be used to address environmental issues country-wide. He explains.

On the Phone: Osmany Salas, N.G.O. Senator

“Like all the other regulatory agencies, their budget for operations is very limited. For the Department of the Environment that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case because within the E.P.A. itself, it outlines the environmental management fund and where money should come from for that environmental management fund and there is also the environmental tax. The Environmental Tax Act stipulates that proceeds from that should go into supporting the work of the department, strengthening the department, river cleaning, pollution, monitoring, control and remediation, etc. So, the D.O.E. should not be in a position not to have sufficient financial resources to do its work. So, what we did is to point out that fact and encourage the government to allocate much needed resources to that department for the very important work that they need to do country-wide. This is not only in relation to the New River, but countrywide we hear about issues happening in and around Macal River and other places. So, environmental tax, alone, I think last year generated fifty-plus million dollars and that for the most part, if not completely sent to the consolidated revenue fund. So, we are just alerting the public to that fact and hopefully encourage the government to allocate more resources from those sources to the D.O.E. to do their jobs more effectively.”