One of the biggest barriers to job creation in Connecticut has been a regulatory environment that hasn”™t exactly been very encouraging to businesses in the state. However, in the final hours of the 2010 legislative session, a major regulatory reform bill with a strong focus on the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) won final approval by the House and Senate.
Signed into law on June 9 by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Public Act 10-158 is the result of a strong, bipartisan effort to send a signal to the marketplace that the state wants to move forward to protect its environmental resources in a way that will also place a high value on jobs and economic investment.
Among other things, the new law:
- Establishes time frames for completing the review of DEP permit applications;
- Creates a new program for expediting permits for projects of economic significance;
- Creates a statewide permit ombudsman and requires the designation of a business ombudsman with the Departments of Environmental Protection, Transportation and Public Health;
- Reduces permit application requirements for certain categories of facilities;
- Establishes a review of procedures for adopting general permits and recommendations for improvement;
- Sets up a new “consulting services program” within the DEP to improve compliance assistance in a non-adversarial manner;
- Requires statewide standards that form the basis of water permitting to be adopted as regulations rather the current DEP-only process and;
- Requires the use of various methods for reducing the impact of proposed regulations on small businesses.
Approval of the new law, however, only started the process of achieving its goals and action has quickly shifted from the legislature to state regulatory agencies. The DEP, along with other agencies and stakeholders, must now work together to make sure the letter and spirit of the new law are fully implemented.
Already, some DEP bureaus are meeting with the business community and others to evaluate existing permit processing time frames and discuss ways to reduce them. What”™s more, by no later than Oct. 1 this year, a variety of workgroups will be formed and meeting to comply with such legislative mandates as establishing a pilot expedited permitting process affecting at least 200 manufacturing/industrial facilities, reducing abuse of Connecticut”™s Environmental Protection Act by individuals interested in delaying or scuttling projects that create jobs and economic growth, and improving the current process for adopting general permits that affect thousands of businesses across the state.
In addition, the DEP must quickly begin the process of implementing the new “consulting services program,” which is based on the model used by Conn-OSHA. The agency will have to reallocate existing resources and adjust its policies to implement the new program by Oct. 1.
CBIA anticipates being closely involved in most aspects of the law”™s implementation. And, as was the case in leading the effort to pass this year”™s landmark legislation, we will rely on the active participation of the business community to help achieve success.
Eric Brown is Associate Counsel and Director of the Environmental Policies Council at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.
