Your opinion and your voice are needed to give the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) feedback on preserving or enhancing environmental protections in Indiana. As Friends of Jesus, we know that God wants us to use our free will to be good stewards of the earth and especially, the land in which we live. As our ally, the Hoosier Environmental Council says, “most environmental protections are a regulatory response to real harms already done to humans or the natural systems on which we depend; regulations are enacted to protect us from things that have already caused some type of harm.”
Indiana already has some of the weakest environmental regulations in the country and with the EPA being underfunded and under resourced, having effective and sensible rules are important to protect human life and the lives of creatures that make this world so amazing. Industries have come and gone in Indiana that have used up valuable resources and then left pollutants behind for citizens to clean up. Did you know that there are areas in Indiana that have an Environment Restriction Covenant (ERC) after the area has been polluted and may not be safe for residential dwellings? Let’s prevent those problems by having good regulations.
IDEM is accepting public comment before June 30th on Executive Order 25-38, which seeks to eliminate environmental protections that are “overly burdensome to individuals, businesses, communities, or industries” across Indiana – who do you think will benefit the most?
Please Take Action on one item that speaks to your heart.
Mary Blackburn
mary.blackburn4@gmail.com
Indiana Friends Committee on Legislation
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good Genesis 1:31
From Hoosier Environmental Council
Thank you for raising your voice to let IDEM and Governor Braun know that a lack of environmental protections is the real burden to Hoosiers’ health, wealth, and community wellbeing. Be sure to submit your comment by June 30!
IDEM’s instructions for submitting a public comment are somewhat narrow; to simplify things, Hoosier Environmental Council developed this tool to help you craft a message that adheres to the agency’s directions. We’ve also offered some draft message text that you are free to use or delete.
But please don’t limit yourself to our basic text – the more detail you can include about how you’ve been impacted or burdened by Indiana’s lack of environmental protections, the better! If your family’s health has been affected by air or water pollution, if your community’s quality of life has been degraded by mishandling of hazardous waste, if your energy bill continues to climb because you lack access to affordable clean energy, etc., please include that in your comment to IDEM. IDEM has asked that commenters include information on financial costs they’ve borne as a result of environmental “burdens,” along with “specific suggestions regarding repeal, replacement, or modification of existing environmental rules and regulations.”
You may submit a comment on one or all of the following orders:
Executive Order 25-38: Creating Opportunity and Reducing Over-Regulation While Protecting Our Environment
Executive Order 25-38 prevents enforcement of environmental regulations in Indiana that are more stringent than federal baselines, unless deemed necessary by either Indiana state law or the governor’s office. Although Indiana has very few environmental regulations more stringent than the federal government’s, attorneys in the state say the Executive Order could be used to pull back regulations on wetland protections, hazardous waste disposal, open burning, and industrial stormwater permitting. Click a link below to send IDEM a public comment in response to Executive Order 25-38 on one of those topics:
IDEM is also taking public comment on the following Executive Orders (click on any of them to send a comment to IDEM):
EO 25-48, which authorizes the development of nuclear energy and small modular nuclear reactors in our state
EO 25-49, which forbids state agencies from developing climate actions plans or considering the social cost of greenhouse gases
EO 25-50, which supports extending the life of coal-burning power plants across Indiana