Pruitt is Turning EPA Into Every Polluter’s Agency

EPA data reveals a dramatic decrease in enforcement of polluter fees in its annual enforcement report. In their report polluters were fined a total of $1.6 billion in penalties in fiscal year 2017 — about 72% drop of the $5.7 billion EPA penalties collected the year prior, under President Obama.

“There is a serious drop in enforcement under Pruitt at the EPA just one year. It does not mean violations are not happening, it means the EPA is looking the other way. This means there is more pollution impacting communities public health and safety There could be dumping of toxic waste, which means more pollution impacting public health and.  There is no one to enforce environmental laws, creating a polluter’s holiday,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. In his previous job as Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt sued the EPA more than a dozen times. We said that Pruitt is a fox guarding a hen house and he is proving it. Enforcement dropped 72% in one year, how much will it drop next year? He is putting our environment and people’s health and safety at risk.

Part of the EPA’s job is to recommend polluters to the Justice Department (DOJ) for prosecution. There was a drop in EPA’s recommendations for prosecution was the most noticeable change in the 2017 enforcement report. The number of cases recommended in 2017 was 110, compared to 152 the year before. Injunctive relief payments in fiscal year 2017 were less than a third of 2016’s numbers and less than half of 2015’s when removing the VW settlement.

“When you cut enforcement, it sends a signal to businesses that you can get away with dumping toxic chemicals and violating environmental rules without getting caught. If there are no cops around, you will speed. What the Trump Administration is doing is siding with corporate polluters, especially from the oil, coal, and gas industry over our public health and safety. The cutbacks in prosecutions and injunctive relief payments are basically tax cuts for polluters. If they caught, they will only get a slap on the risk. The EPA need to do their jobs when it comes to enforcement. This will not only protect the environment, but bring in potential revenue. Without enforcement, we will not have enough money to fund important environmental programs that protect the health of the environment its people,” said Tittel.  

The EPA report shows that injunctive relief in 2017 stood at $20 billion, compared to 2016’s $13.7 billion, but $15.9 billion of the recent total come from the landmark Volkswagen settlement. When the settlement is taken out of the calculation, injunctive relief payments in fiscal year 2017 totaled just $4 billion. An EPA employee currently working in the office of compliance told The Hill, under the condition of anonymity, that in the days leading up to the release of the report the administration worried about how to spin the dipping enforcement numbers as a positive.

“What we are seeing at a national level, we have seen at a state level under the Christie Administration. Christie cut at least 60 percent of environmental enforcement and inspections in New Jersey. Even though there was no enforcement, there are still violations. New Jersey needs to do more by not only fixing our broken enforcement system but doing the job the EPA won’t do.  Governor Murphy made a good first step by appointing Commissioner McCabe because she came from an enforcement background. We hope this will be a signal to polluters that there is a new cop on the beat. The state now must do enforcement since the EPA won’t. said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need to find professionals with integrity and competence who will work to protect our environment and don’t funded by or work for regulated entities. “We have to go out and get inspectors to check sites, permits and facilities since the EPA isn’t doing it. New Jersey needs to put enforce in enforcement since the EPA won’t do it.”