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Sunday, February 11th, 2018

Federal penalties against polluters at lowest level in a decade under Trump

Author:     Oliver Milman
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Fri 9 Feb 2018 11.54 EST
 Link: Federal penalties against polluters at lowest level in a decade under Trump
Stephan:   Under the Trump administration the Federal regulation system has been deliberately and blatantly rigged to favor the uber-rich who own the Republican Party, to the explicit detriment of the peasants. Once again, here is the proof. And yet with most trends being negative, hard as it may be to believe, according to Nat Silvers' Five Thirty Eight across all polls Trump has an overall 40.8% approval rating -- it's actually up several points over the past two weeks -- and 91% of Republicans still approve and support him.  

The Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement activity against polluters has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, with the first year of the Trump administration seeing a sharp drop in fines for companies that break environmental rules.

Figures released by the EPA show that 115 environmental crime cases were opened in the 2017 financial year, down from a peak of nearly 400 in the 2009 financial year, which was largely under the Obama administration.

A total of $1.6bn in new penalties were levied against polluters in 2017, in the fiscal year that ended 30 September. This was around a fifth of the $5.9bn instigated by the Obama administration in 2016 but still higher than any other year stretching back to 2007.

The EPA pointed to the $1.2bn it secured from private entities to clean up superfund sites, toxic areas that have been abandoned by polluting industries, and said that a total of $2.98bn had been levied in criminal fines, restitution and court-ordered projects. These cases, the EPA said, reduced or eliminated 217m pounds of air pollution and 412m cubic yards of contaminated water.

“A strong enforcement program is essential to achieving positive health and environmental outcomes,” said Susan Bodine, […]

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2 Comments

  1. Mark R on Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 11:30 am

    This is such a joke. The federal government (Dept of Defense, Dept of Energy, Tennessee Valley Authority) is the biggest polluter of them all..the joke is they are the ones supposedly policing the corporations. EPA is an oxymoron and it has been for decades.

  2. Rev. Dean on Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 12:11 pm

    Trump does not give a damn about anyone but himself and his pocketbook. He does not care about America at all.