Latest EPA Enforcement Data Shows Major Decline In Relief, Pollution Cuts

摘要

EPA's just-released enforcement data for fiscal year 2009 shows a major drop of more than $6 billion in injunctive relief compared to FY08 - the last full year of the Bush administration's enforcement efforts - and a similarly massive drop of roughly 3 billion pounds of pollution reduced.rnWhile the figures released Dec. 23 are, as expected, significantly lower than the FY08 data, the agency on its Web site says it "continues to vigorously enforce the nation's environmental laws." EPA's press release on the data cautions that the enforcement figures vary significantly from year to year and are dependent upon the number of large cases that settle in a given year. Additionally, EPA notes the data do not reflect the "totality" of annual enforcement activities.