Ebtekar's Complaint About the 'Political Maneuvering' of the Ninth Parliament Regarding Environmental Issues

As the Ninth Parliament approaches the end of its term, the head of the Department of Environment states that some members of this parliament were politically maneuvering around environmental issues. According to Masoumeh Ebtekar, a specific group of parliamentarians were more focused on opposing the Department of Environment for various reasons than on advancing environmental issues. She cited the example of petrochemical gasoline, stating that some representatives never accepted its impact on air pollution, despite statistics clearly showing the effect of gasoline quality changes on air pollution. She implicitly referred to the continuous denials by the Parliament's Article 90 Commission and representatives regarding the role of domestically produced gasoline in air pollution during Ahmadinejad's presidency. During the Ninth Parliament, some representatives proposed dissolving the Department of Environment, with a plan signed by 63 parliamentarians who believed that the department should be under the Ministry of Agriculture to strengthen parliamentary oversight. Now, in the final days of this parliamentary term, the head of the Department of Environment expressed hope that the Tenth Parliament would be more environmentally focused, noting that the introduction of sudden proposals and plans in the Ninth Parliament was a common practice among representatives. This comes at a time when 107 representatives issued a warning to President Hassan Rouhani, calling for action to save lives from air pollution. Last week, the deputy head of the Department of Environment stated that six very important environmental bills are awaiting discussion in the parliament, which the department hopes will become law. He mentioned that the growth of the environmental budget in 2016 was about 40% higher than the average growth of the national budget.