Polluters Getting a Pass from EPA

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Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:12:55 GMT

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Polluters Getting a Pass from EPA

 

 

 

Bush Greenwatch

 

October 19, 2004 | Back Issues

 

Polluters Getting a Pass from EPA

 

Polluters are breathing easier under the current regime at the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has registered a 75

percent reduction in civil lawsuits filed against polluters, according

to a new study from the nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

 

Using data obtained in part under the Freedom of Information Act, the

Project found that EPA filed only 36 civil lawsuits for violations of

the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and other

environmental laws in the first three years of the Bush

administration. By contrast, in the last three years of the Clinton

administration EPA filed 152 suits.

 

The report was compiled by EIP's Eric Schaeffer, the former head of

EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement. Schaeffer resigned in 2002 in

protest over the administration's reluctance to enforce the Clean Air

Act and the Clean Water Act.

 

" EPA's recent record suggests that the 'full weight of the law' has

gotten a lot lighter over the past three years, " said Schaeffer.

" Teddy Roosevelt must be turning over in his grave. "

 

According to the EIP report, the nation's largest energy companies

(and biggest polluters) are on an " extended vacation " from EPA

enforcement actions. While the Justice Department has continued to

litigate cases it inherited from the Clinton administration, it filed

new lawsuits against only three energy companies from 2001 to January

2004.

 

" While refineries and coal-fired power plants appear virtually immune

from prosecution, the Justice Department did find time to take a dry

cleaner to federal court for failure to pay an administrative

penalty, " the report notes.

 

In fact, last November EPA's enforcement staff was told to " set aside "

investigations against more than 70 power companies, including some of

the biggest polluters of the nation's air.

 

The EPA had earlier referred 14 cases against power companies to the

Justice Department for prosecution, but the Department has filed only

one new case since January of 2001.

 

EPA staff have also been ordered to halt investigations of industrial

scale " factory farms " that house thousands of animals and often make

the air in surrounding communities unfit to breathe.

 

According to the report, EPA has been able to mask the decline in its

enforcement program by cashing in settlements set in motion by the

Clinton administration. In fact, many of the most important

settlements EPA has celebrated either in press releases or in its

annual enforcement reports resulted from Clinton-era lawsuits, the EIP

report says.

 

In addition to drastically scaling back on enforcement, the Bush

administration has shackled EPA staff with debilitating cutbacks. Only

two months after coming to power, the White House proposed eliminating

more than 13 percent of the Agency's civil enforcement staff.

 

Former EPA top enforcement official J.P. Suarez, appointed by

President Bush, said of enforcement cutbacks, " We did not have enough

money for travel, for technical support, for investigations, for

depositions [and] for experts...I can tell you that there is going to

be a major collapse if that is not rectified... "

 

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SOURCES:

" Polluters Breathe Easier, " EIP report.