Fewer polluters punished under Bush, records show

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Mon, Dec. 08, 2003

Fewer polluters punished under Bush, records show
By SETH BORENSTEIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers


WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is catching and punishing far fewer polluters than the two previous administrations, according to a Knight Ridder analysis of 15 years of environmental-enforcement records.

Civil enforcement of pollution laws peaked when the president's father, George H.W. Bush, was in office from 1989-93 and has fallen ever since, but it's plummeted since George W. Bush took office three years ago. That's according to records of 17 different categories of enforcement activity obtained by Knight Ridder through the Freedom of Information Act.

William K. Reilly, the EPA administrator under the first President Bush, said he told his enforcers that "under no circumstances do I want the numbers to drop. It's your job to bring in these cases."

Violation notices against polluters are the most important enforcement tool, experts say, and they've had the biggest drop under the current President Bush. The monthly average of violation notices since January 2001 has dropped 58 percent compared with the Clinton administration's monthly average. (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/7445009.htm

[rooboy]

1. It's part of the Bush administration's commitment to God...

they want a country where someday EVERYBODY will be able to walk on water.

[underpants]

3. Actually you aren't far off

RFK Jr.'s article in Rolling Stone points out directly that the Dominion theorists and left Behinders (not mention by RFK Jr.) are fully a part of this. They want to grab as many riches as possible NOW because as James Watt once said ~"We don't know how many generations we will be able to pass this land on to ...." (loose quote) he implied that the world might end and if that were the case what a waste all this preservation would have been when there was MONEY TO BE MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Just Me]

7. "walk on water", heh, heh,...

,...that was great, rooboy,...definitely a keeper,...and I will use it over and over in response to my profit-oriented conservative constituents,...thanks!!

[underpants]

2. SHOCKED I tell you SHOCKED I am (+you can see the BS from a mile away)

"The agency has what we refer to as `smart enforcement,'" EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt said in an interview with Knight Ridder. "Our focus is on enforcement that changes behavior in a positive way."

That means working with companies to get them to fix problems instead of being punishment-oriented, Leavitt and his predecessor, Christine Todd Whitman, have said.

"The point of smart enforcement is that you use the best tool for each individual situation; compliance is the goal," Leavitt said.

____________________

Oh please save it, suddenly in this particular situation rehabilitation is better than punishment? As I read the snips and then the article I could feel it coming......~"the number is lower because their is less polluting going on" Uh-huh

[snippy]

4. I am shocked AND awed by what a paid political whore Bush is.

[underpants]

8. Bottom line if it effects the bottom line just pony up some dough

and he (they) will fix whatever problem you have. That's how third world crony dictators work, Welcome to the NEW 'Murka just like back in that OOoooold days.

[snippy]

9. True.

[enki23]

5. i bet it's because nobody's polluting anymore

how have arrests on drugs charges been doing?

[bushisanidiot]

6. The Air Is Clean and Pure In His Bubble. Screw Everyone Else

typical repuke "me first" attitude.

[Mr_Bleedingheart]

10. doesn't surpise me in the slightest

Having Bush as our pResident results in a Huge Tax Give Away to the Rich, Huge Deficits, under funding education, Environmental programs that are voluntary and…