Every day, we are presented with more evidence of the need to inspect for environmental violations and enforce the nation’s laws. The evidence is stark in the Chesapeake Bay region where, in 2012 alone, just 17 large point sources reported illegal discharges of nitrogen totaling nearly 700,000 pounds. These violations put the watershed states behind in their efforts to restore the estuary and meet the 2025 goals of the Bay pollution diet.
The problem cries out for stronger enforcement of environmental laws, and yet EPA recently released a draft FY 2014–2018 Strategic Plan that signals that the agency will retreat significantly from traditional enforcement in the coming years. Specifically, EPA aims to conduct 30 percent fewer inspections and file 40 percent fewer civil cases over the next five years as compared to the last five.
CPR’s newest Issue Alert, which I co-authored with CPR President Rena Steinzor and Member Scholar Rob Gicksman, argues that traditional enforcement should be the last function the agency should cut because it is the most cost-effective weapon to prevent backsliding on the progress the nation has made in reducing traditional pollution.
Instead of traditional enforcement, the agency’s plan embraces a new enforcement paradigm called “Next Generation Compliance.” NextGen relies on self-monitoring and reporting by polluters, aims to make regulations “easier” for them to comply with, and replaces the way EPA measures the effectiveness of its enforcement activities with untested methods.
The Issue Alert finds that EPA’s new enforcement scheme has at least four specific shortcomings:
This retreat from enforcement could severely undercut regulated entities’ commitment to meet their responsibilities, exposing the public to unacceptable health and environmental risks. Enforcement should be the last function to suffer from inadequate budgetary allocations.
You can read a summary of the report here.
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Anne Havemann | February 4, 2014
Every day, we are presented with more evidence of the need to inspect for environmental violations and enforce the nation’s laws. The evidence is stark in the Chesapeake Bay region where, in 2012 alone, just 17 large point sources reported illegal discharges of nitrogen totaling nearly 700,000 pounds. These violations put the watershed states behind […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | January 30, 2014
Suddenly politics in this country appears to have taken a turn toward democracy and away from markets. As we develop in a book just published by Oxford University Press, discussing economic inequality. Regulation of Wall Street proceeds apace after the investment banks and mortgage lenders sank the American economy with their recklessness as they now […]
Joseph Tomain | January 27, 2014
Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a report entitled Energy Works for US: Solutions for America’s Energy Future. The data and references in the report are largely accurate, as far as they go, and the report promotes energy efficiency, which is a welcome step. Ultimately, though, the report is unreliable because it has too […]
Rena Steinzor | January 22, 2014
As people across the country and around the world watched the tableau of 300,000 West Virginians give up their drinking, cooking and bath water for days on end because an untested toxic chemical was spilled by a company that was co-founded by a twice-convicted felon, the ever-present John Boehner (R-Ohio) had pungent advice for President […]
James Goodwin | January 22, 2014
It’s time to put to bed an unfortunate myth that’s been floating around the last few weeks. The myth goes something like this: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)—the opaque bureau within the White House charged with approving agencies’ draft regulations before they can be released to the public—has succeeded in improving the […]
| January 20, 2014
In the wake of the toxic chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia that contaminated the city’s water supply, citizens across the country are wondering if it could happen to them. Given gaps in our environmental and chemical regulation regime, the answer is a resounding yes. For the past year, I’ve been investigating problems of chemical […]
Rena Steinzor | January 17, 2014
For the past week, 300,000 people in and around Charleston, West Virginia, have been unable to drink the water that came from their taps, because of the toxic byproduct of feeble regulation and non-existent enforcement. Thousands of gallons of a coal-cleaning agent seeped into the local water supply after it oozed out of an antiquated […]
Anne Havemann | January 14, 2014
As congressional negotiators reconcile the House- and Senate-passed Farm Bills, they are considering two provisions that would cut off access to information about federally subsidized farm programs and threaten public health and safety. The Farm Bill will provide farmers with billions of dollars in federal subsidies, crop insurance, conservation payments, and other grants. The vast […]
Rena Steinzor | January 13, 2014
Today, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sent its benighted poultry-processing rule to the White House for final review. The millions of consumers who eat undercooked chicken at their peril and the beleaguered workers in these dank, overcrowded, and dangerous plants can only hope the President’s people come to their senses over there and kill this […]