Panel pins blame for Flint crisis on Gov. Snyder’s administration
Republicans -- and some pundits -- want to blame the Flint crisis on the EPA and federal officials.
There's new evidence that proves they're wrong.
Last fall, when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) started to recognize the severity of the catastrophe in Flint, he appointed members to a task force to determine what went wrong. There were concerns that the panel might hesitate before pointing the finger at the same governor who tasked them with uncovering the truth.
It was all the more striking, then, when the panel issued a report yesterday that said it’s the Snyder administration that’s “fundamentally accountable” for the Flint crisis, because it was the governor’s environmental regulators and state-appointed emergency managers who created the mess. The state Associated Press reported:
The panel … said what happened in Flint is “a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice.” It also cited “intransigence and belligerence that has no place in government.”
“Flint water customers were needlessly and tragically exposed to toxic levels of lead and other hazards through the mismanagement of their drinking water supply,” investigators said.
Moreover, the 116-page report described as “inappropriate” a frequent claim of Snyder and his representatives that the Flint water crisis represents a failure of the local, state and federal governments. That suggests “that blame is attributable equally to all three levels of government,” the report said.
The do ent, available online in its entirety, concluded, “The state is fundamentally accountable for what happened in Flint.
And what about the effort on the part of Republicans and both-sides-are-always-to-blame pundits to hold the federal EPA responsible for Flint?
The report included criticisms of the EPA, which the task force said was too deferential towards the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. In effect, federal officials had the legal authority to intervene more aggressively in state affairs, but they were slow and hesitant to do so.
It creates an odd dynamic for Republicans hoping to exploit this angle for partisan purposes: they’re left to complain that the EPA acted too much the way Republicans expects the agency to act.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...d=sm_fb_maddow
"states rights"!! Repugs say Feds should butt out of state operations, except when they shouldn't!