Nation & world briefing
Bush’s EPA hits polluters
with fewer, smaller fines
Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — Polluters have
paid 64 percent less in fines for
breaking federal environmental
rules under the Bush administration
than they did in the final two years
of the Clinton administration, ac
cording to federal records analyzed
by Knight Ridder.
The Bush administration is forc
ing fewer polluters to pay fines, and
the penalties are much smaller than
they were under Clinton, according
to records obtained hv a former top
environmental-enforcement official
under President Bush.
“There’s a tremendous problem
with environmental policy in general
and enforcement in particular in this
administration,” said Sylvia
Lowrance, who was the Environmen
tal Protection Agency’s acting assis
tant administrator in charge of en
forcement from January 20, 2001, to
May 2002. A 28-year civil servant, she
retired in August. “The dam don’t lie.”
Lowrance’s deputy, EPA civil-en
forcement chief Eric Schaeffer, who
resigned last February to protest
what he charged was weak enforce
ment, compiled four years’ worth of
EPA non-Superfund civil-enforce
ment settlements through Oct. 1,'all
published in the Federal Register. A
Knight Ridder analysis found that
during the first 20 months of the
Bush administration, civil penalties
averaged S3.8 million per month.
During the last 28 months of the
Clinton administration, civil penal
ties for the same types of violations
averaged $10.6 million a month.
In addition, Bush’s EPA is requir
ing violators to pay much less for
environmental projects, such as
restoring wetlands, that they are or
dered to undertake as part of their
settlements. The value of such ex
tra projects plummeted 77 percent
during the first 20 months of the
Bush administration. Their value
averaged S2.6 million per month,
versus SI 1.6 million per month
during the last 28 months of the
Clinton administration.
During the Clinton administration
the average civil penalty was SI.36
million, versus S605,455 under the
Bush administration, a drop of near
ly 56 percent.
The EPA says it does not have fig
ures for 2002, hut spokesman Joe
Martyak said polluter penalties in fis
cal 2001 totaled nearly twice as
much as those paid in 2000 under
Clinton. Schaeffers accounting
showed that three-quarters of the
2001 settlement fines were agreed
upon before Bush took office, but
Martyak said polluter penalties were
rising under Bush.
The EPA’s current enforcement
chief, John Suarez, vows to be vigilant.
“I feel the pressure is out there for
us to go do good enforcement cases,”
Suarez said in an interview. “We will
continue to enforce. We must con
tinue to enforce.”
Current EPA officials said it was
unfair to compare the first months of
an administration to Clinton’s sec
ond-term EPA, which had many
years of experience. Because Bush’s
first choice as EPA enforcement
chief had to withdraw under pres
sure on Capitol Hill, Suarez did not
take over until August. Before that
he was New Jersey’s gambling-en
forcement chief.
During her confirmation hearings
in January 2001, EPA Administrator
Christie Whitman promised an EPA
•that collaborates more with busi
ness, but added: “We will work to
promote effective compliance with
environmental standards without
weakening our vigorous enforce
ment of tough laws and regulations.”
Former EPA enforcer Schaeffer,
now director of the Rockefeller Fam
ily Fund’s Environmental Integrity
Project, said, “They’ve obviously
taken the pressure off (polluters), es
pecially on the clean-air cases.”
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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