Polluting enterprises face to face with the new environmental protection law, experts call for an exit mechanism
Pollution control has caused 60000 people to lose their jobs "-- a recent media report on the" consequences "of pollution control in Linyi, Shandong Province, has attracted much attention. What is the real situation of pollution control in Linyi and why is it so controversial? The reporter recently interviewed the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of environmental protection and relevant experts.
Of the 57 enterprises that stopped production, 31 have completed rectification
According to some media reports, the emergency shutdown of enterprises in Linyi was due to the interview with the mayor by the Ministry of environmental protection, which is not the case.
In 2014, in the air pollution control action, Linyi City issued a deadline treatment notice to 57 enterprises, ordering them to improve pollution control facilities. The deadline for treatment is the end of 2014. As of February this year, these enterprises had not completed the governance task on schedule.
Zou Shoumin, director of the Environmental Supervision Bureau of the Ministry of environmental protection, told reporters that this year, the East China supervision center of the Ministry of environmental protection selected 15 of the 57 enterprises for on-site inspection. It was found that 13 enterprises had environmental violations such as illegal discharge, missing discharge and environmental assessment violations, and the regional environmental pollution problem was serious.
"Not only the problems found in the inspection, but also in the daily management, Linyi is also an area where people's environmental complaints are more concentrated. Several factors are superimposed. The East China Supervision Center interviewed the main person in charge of Linyi Municipal government." Zou Shoumin said that Linyi drew inferences from one example and ordered 57 enterprises that failed to complete the deadline treatment task to stop production for rectification. By March 10 this year, all 57 enterprises had stopped production.
With the implementation of the new environmental protection law, "treatment within a time limit" has been abolished. According to Article 60 of the new environmental protection law, if enterprises, institutions and other producers and operators discharge pollutants exceeding the pollution discharge standards or exceeding the total emission control indicators of key pollutants, the competent environmental protection department of the people's government at or above the county level may order them to take measures such as limiting production, stopping production and remediation; If the circumstances are serious, it shall be reported to the people's government with the power of approval and ordered to suspend business or close down. The East China supervision center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection said that there was evidence in law for Linyi to shut down enterprises.
It is the closure of 57 enterprises that has triggered a lot of controversy. In fact, as of July 1, 31 of the 57 enterprises have completed rectification, of which 10 have officially produced, 21 have started trial production, and the remaining 26 are still stopping production for rectification.
At present, the overall operation of Linyi's economy is stable, and the financial, tax share, investment, consumption, export and other indicators reflecting structural benefits and aftereffect have maintained a good level in Shandong Province. Zou Shoumin said that whether the specific unemployment situation is really as reported by the media needs to be analyzed by the local government. Some enterprises have summer holidays, and the temporary "job waiting" of employees does not mean unemployment. In addition, local governments have made corresponding social assistance for the difficulties of enterprises and people caused by shutdown.
On the other hand, the benefits of rectification on environmental quality have emerged: from March to June this year, the concentration of PM2.5, PM10, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and excellent days in Linyi City decreased by 27.8%, 23.5%, 41.4%, 25.4% and 31 days respectively.
Polluting enterprises face to face with the new environmental protection law
In the view of some experts, the centralized and one-sided reports of several media are due to the non cooperation of polluting enterprises with law enforcement. Some people question why these news media agree without reason?
In the notification of the Ministry of environmental protection, Jiangquan Industrial Park in Luozhuang district was named. This place also caused cross-border pollution disputes with Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province a few years ago. The Industrial Park concentrates many coking, steel, building materials, thermal power and other high energy consuming and high pollution enterprises such as Linyi Jiangxin iron and steel company, Linyi Yihua Coking Co., Ltd. and Linyi Jiangquan Pipe Industry Co., Ltd. these enterprises have a large amount of pollutant emissions, and there are serious illegal phenomena such as illegal discharge and leakage. During the on-site inspection and visit of the East China Inspection Center, the surrounding residents generally reflected that the air pollution in this area was serious. It is these named enterprises that have complained in relevant media reports several times.
"In the rectification notice issued last year, why did the enterprise not change by February this year? In a word, the enterprise is waiting and see if it can get through again." Du Shaozhong, former deputy director of Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, asked.
"Environmental law enforcement must not be lenient or soft," said Zou Shoumin.
Wu shunze, vice president of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of environmental protection, said that some polluting enterprises have long produced economic benefits by secretly discharging and leaking emissions, and they cry out when they are punished. Only by strictly enforcing the law can the concept that law-abiding is the bottom line be correctly transmitted to enterprises, and enterprises can have sustainable development.
Wang spontaneously, a researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that after the implementation of the law, the authority of the law must be maintained. Once a compromise is made, the environmental protection work will be defeated like a mountain.
"We must maintain a high pressure on environmental violations." Xia Guang, director of the environmental and economic policy research center of the Ministry of environmental protection, said that in those years, pollution in the Pearl River Delta forced enterprises to transform, and some enterprises also shouted grievances. In fact, they had already reserved a retreat, either upgrade or don't do it. Linyi today is quite similar to the Pearl River Delta in those days. We must adhere to the authoritative position of the law and believe in the regeneration ability of enterprises.
Experts suggested to establish an exit mechanism for heavy polluting enterprises
In any case, the shutdown of enterprises will cause certain losses to the society. However, pollution is like a cancer. If it is tolerated one day, the poison will be deeper and deeper. Scraping bone cures poison, and severe pain is inevitable.
Xia Guang said that Linyi is a typical example of sacrificing the environment for economic development. This model should first be attributed to the subjective reasons of the local government and enterprises' weak legal awareness of environmental protection and one-sided pursuit of economic interests. In addition, there are certain objective reasons: in the past two or three decades, while strengthening the economic strength at the central level, the state has also strongly encouraged local governments to develop industrial production capacity, resulting in a unique regional economic competition pattern. In this process, the backward production capacity with serious pollution also grows with the trend. Linyi lacks geographical advantages, technical ability and high-end talents, and has little capital accumulation. It has no ability to engage in clean industry. It can only develop in a backward mode of production. Now, Linyi's old road has come to an end and has reached the period of green transformation.
"It must be made clear that there is a price for controlling pollution and improving environmental quality." Jia Feng, director of the publicity and education center of the Ministry of environmental protection, said that the rapid victory theory of environmental protection and the low-cost theory of environmental protection are ignorant. Every progress made in environmental protection is based on the support of capital, manpower and various social costs. The debate over the consequences of pollution control in Linyi actually teaches us that we must recognize that destroying the environment needs to pay a price.
Complain about lax law enforcement all day, and someone shouted pain just after strict law enforcement. In this regard, Wang Jinnan, vice president and chief engineer of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of environmental protection, said that since the tenth five year plan, we have been talking about paying off old debts and not owed new ones, but many places not only haven't paid off old debts, but also owe a pile of new accounts. The most important thing is the "support" of some local governments for pollution. Linyi's old accounts and new accounts are piled together, so the pain of paying off the accounts is exacerbated.
At the same time of strict law enforcement, Yang Chaofei, vice president of the Chinese society of Environmental Sciences, also suggested that when solving environmental pollution, we must pay attention to protecting the rights of investors. All enterprises attracting investment by the government are legal enterprises, and their legitimate interests should be protected according to law. We must not change it overnight. At the same time, we should establish an exit mechanism for heavily polluting enterprises, and the government should provide preferential policies to completely solve the pollution problem in 5 to 10 years.
(source: People's daily, original title: face-to-face confrontation between polluting enterprises and the new environmental protection law, experts call for an exit mechanism)