Making it easier to pollute

The number of enforcement actions taken by the U.S. EPA have fallen by 25% during the past 5 years compared with actions taken from 1996 through 2000 under former President Clinton. This is according to the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit group founded by the former director of EPA’s Office of Regulatory Enforcement. The analysis shows that recently EPA has filed an average of less than 16 lawsuits per year, as opposed to the 52 per year average filed from 1996 through 2000. Civil penalties assessed against companies have dropped by 24%, criminal fines are down by 38%, and criminal investigations have decreased by 23%. The report credits EPA staff for increasing the monetary value of legal settlements in recent years.