EPA faulted over penalty assessments

摘要

The Environmental Protection Agency should exercise greater accuracy and transparency when reporting enforcement actions it takes against polluters, the Government Accountability Office said last week. GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said EPA assessed only $138 million in penalties in 2007, compared to $241 million in 1998. GAO said the drop indicates "shortcomings" in EPA's methodology, including the possibility that the agency "overstated" the impact of its pollution-enforcement programs by reporting the fines that it assessed, rather than the penalties that companies actually paid.