Boeing buys Political Influence

Captured Agencies

The Consumer Watchdog’s Inside Job report shows how polluters work the system and influence regulators to save their clients potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. The report lists a few strategies Boeing used to capture and influence the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) over the Santa Susana Field Lab including:

• Boeing captured DTSC, including its [former] Director Debbie Raphael, with help from former government officials—including some that worked for [former Governor] Brown in his prior administration—to pressure their own former subordinates and others to reverse cleanup.

• Boeing benefited from the removal of four regulators who had championed full cleanup of the site

Boeing LobbyistS

Boeing hired people from regulating agencies with knowledge of the Santa Susana Field Lab to become lobbyists. Several men listed in the Inside Job report worked for the DTSC or CalEPA, or as environmental advisors to former governor Brown before being hired as lobbyists for Boeing. It was simple for those who had already worked inside DTSC to push for limits to the cleanup requirements on behalf their client, Boeing.

Regulating Boards

Two former chairs of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LARWQCB), which regulates Boeing’s National Pollution Elimination Discharge System (NPDES) have had connections to Boeing. Charles Stringer was chair of the board while a paid lobbyist for Boeing. He recused himself each time Boeing’s NPDES came before the board but he never publicly disclosed his relationship to Boeing.

Irma Muñoz was chairwoman of the LARWQCB when her non-profit, Mujeres de la Tierra, accepted donations from Boeing over several years. Although Muñoz recused herself from several Boeing related hearings, she was chair when Boeing’s fines for the Woolsey Fire were dramatically reduced by the LARWQCB’s staff.

Read more:

Balance of Equality

David Michael’s The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception

Consumer Watchdog How Business is Really Done Before Environmental Agencies