This year is the official implementation of the new Environmental Protection Law, and the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law will also be revised. Controlling pollution in accordance with the law and with an iron fist has become a consensus across the country. How to turn the consensus on environmental protection into environmental pressure and then become a driving force for environmental protection? Recently, reporters from Xinhua News Agency found in Hebei, Tianjin and other places that the effective transmission of environmental pressure still has to pass a few more hurdles.

      "Environmental protection is not only a matter for the Secretary of Environmental Protection"

      "After nearly two years of supervision, it should be said that the pressure on environmental protection at the provincial and municipal levels in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas can be clearly felt, especially the mayor of Hebei is very stressed." Director of the North China Inspection Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection Liu Changgen said, “Public interviews are an effective way to conduct environmental protection pressure.”

      Since 2015, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has successively interviewed the main persons in charge of the Cangzhou, Linyi, Chengde, Zhumadian, and Baoding municipal governments on environmental supervision issues. Many cadres have been punished by administrative sanctions.

      The interview with the Ministry of Environmental Protection also led to the interview with the provincial government. On March 26, the Hebei Provincial Environmental Protection Department publicly interviewed the chief officials of the governments of 5 counties (cities and districts) in Cangzhou, Wu'an City in Handan, Kaiping District in Tangshan, Xinji City in Shijiazhuang, and Dingzhou City.

      The new environmental protection law clearly stipulates that local people's governments at all levels shall be responsible for the environmental quality of their administrative regions.

      "Environmental protection is not only the business of the environmental protection bureau." Some grass-roots environmental protection bureaus said that the current environmental pressure has not been widely transmitted to other government departments outside the environmental protection system. Sometimes, once environmental problems arise, the environmental protection departments will be held accountable, which is not fair.

      Liu Changgen pointed out: "The control of air pollution depends not only on the county and township chiefs, but also on the linkage of relevant departments. The pressure must be transmitted level by level, and all levels and departments must be mobilized."

      Environmental protection must endure "short-term pains"

      In the **** quarter of last year, in order to control pollution, the economy of Xingtai City in Hebei Province even turned into a negative growth. The annual GDP growth rate dropped to 6%, which did not reach the average level of the province. Due to business closures and production restrictions, nearly 10,000 jobs were reduced, and the per capita annual income of employees in related industries fell by 4,500 yuan.

      The pain of Xingtai is not alone in Hebei. For a long time, Hebei has formed a heavy chemical industry structure dominated by steel, cement, electric power, and chemicals. These "high energy-consuming and high-emission" industries are the "home industries" and "food industries" that support local economic development, and they are also the "culprits" of environmental pollution.

      According to statistics, in 2014, the resolution of excess production capacity and the treatment of air pollution in Hebei Province affected the annual economic growth by about 1.75 percentage points and the industrial growth rate by about 3 percentage points. Between economic development and pollution control, local governments are experiencing a "transitional pain".

      "The more you go to the place, the more prominent the contradiction between environmental protection and economic development, the more you face the game of interests of all parties, and the more courage you need to fight pollution with an iron fist." The head of the relevant department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection pointed out.

      Experts said that to solve these problems, on the one hand, we must rely on "strict law enforcement, serious supervision, strict assessment, and severe investigation". On the other hand, the government must change the "passive coping thinking" and take the initiative to act under the pressure of environmental protection. Carry out industrial restructuring and economic transformation and upgrading.

      "Environmental protection cannot make honest people suffer"

      The government has an iron fist in tackling pollution, and enterprises are facing the survival problem of increased costs and reduced profits. How to make environmental protection effective and sustainable?

      "Environmental protection cannot let honest people suffer." Ji Zhenhai, director of the Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Resources Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Hebei Province, said, "For enterprises determined to carry out green transformation, the government must introduce relevant support policies to put enterprises not only under external pressure. There can be endogenous power."

      Chen Guoying, director of the Hebei Provincial Department of Environmental Protection, also pointed out that “in the case of increased environmental protection costs for enterprises, to achieve fair competition, it is necessary to require a unified national environmental protection policy standard, unified rules between different regions, and the same level of enforcement.

      A number of business executives said: "Enterprises are afraid of government policies for a while, adopting different standards and treating them differently."

      Environmental protection teams must "strengthen the troops and horses"

      "Grass-roots environmental law enforcement agencies have arduous tasks, the law enforcement teams are low in capacity and staff are tight, and they can no longer adapt to the new requirements of the current environmental protection work." said Feng Hongliang, head of the environmental supervision team of the Jingxing mining area in Shijiazhuang.

      Feng Hongliang’s environmental supervision team has only 5 people, but it has to undertake the daily supervision of more than 100 enterprises in the mining area, pollution declaration, letter and visit investigation, case investigation, environmental emergency, etc., and various special actions are required to deal with environmental protection at all levels. an examination.

      "Sometimes when we build the platform support and climb the chimney, the flue gas emission will meet the standard." Meng Qinghua, deputy director of the Environmental Protection Bureau of Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, was also helpless. "Water pollution is easy to sample and analyze, but it is difficult to obtain evidence for air pollution. It is even harder to detect the discharge at night. It is urgent to equip the grassroots with high-tech rapid detection and evidence collection equipment."

      Compared with law enforcement agencies such as industry and commerce, taxation, and quality inspection, the current environmental protection law enforcement capabilities are obviously insufficient, and the law enforcement status is relatively low. Chen Guoying told reporters, “In some places, not only the use of vehicles and staffing for environmental protection law enforcement cannot be guaranteed. At present, environmental law enforcement officials do not have a uniform national dress, which affects the authority of law enforcement.”

      "Environmental protection is a national policy, but the environmental protection department is still not strong enough, not strong horses." Shijiazhuang City Environmental Protection Director Wang Huaping suggested that the assessment of local governments' implementation of environmental protection funds and capacity building investment should be strengthened, and grassroots environmental protection law enforcement should be improved as soon as possible. ability.