Since 2001, EPA clean-air enforcement actions have been declining

[papau]

Since Bush took office, federal and state authorities have sharply cut back on clean-air enforcement actions at many of the nation's 145 oil refineries - with comprehensive air inspections down 52 percent for refineries since 2001, as the EPA has adopted a less adversarial approach to environmental enforcement for all industries by resolving pollution violations through legal settlements known as consent decrees - great for the oil industry, since the EPA doesn't inspect the companies with whom they are in the process of negotiating, and has greatly cut back its inspections of those refineries that have signed a decree (they rely on industry-reported data and the self-certification of the refineries - who often have a history of avoiding compliance).


http://www.lcv.org/News/News.cfm?orgid=Insider072204&ID=3002&c=27&UID=1016930BDB1FAA8238&MX=352&H=1

Is The EPA Doing Enough?
Jeff Claassen and Scott Streater; Seth Borenstein, Star-Telegram; Knight Ridder
July 19, 2004

Since 2001, EPA clean-air enforcement actions have been declining

Nationwide, since the Bush administration took office, federal and state authorities have sharply cut back on clean-air enforcement actions at many of the nation's 145 oil refineries, even though they remain among the country's worst air polluters, a three-month investigation by the Star-Telegram and Knight Ridder has found.<snip>

Notices of violations have plummeted 68 percent for refineries, compared with a 24 percent drop for all industries. And formal enforcement actions are down 31 percent for refineries but less than 1 percent for all industries nationwide.

"That's stunning data," said Dan Esty, a former senior EPA official in the administration of George H. W. Bush and director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. "What it tells me is that a signal has been sent in a clear way of where this administration wants to spend its environmental priorities. It's not bringing the oil industry to heel."

[jeff30997]

1. One word:

Kyoto.

[papau]

2. Eight states, New York City sue power companies over pollution

Eight states, New York City sue power companies over pollution


precedent-setting, first-of-its-kind public nuisance case lawsuit filed by States

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--emissi...

Eight states, New York City sue power companies over pollution
By MARK JOHNSON Associated Press Writer July 20, 2004, 9:22 PM EDT


ALBANY, N.Y. -- Eight states and New York City will sue to force five of the country's largest power producers to cut carbon dioxide emissions and curb global warming, according to a draft statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, along with New York City's corporation counsel, will file the public nuisance suit Wednesday in federal district court in Manhattan, the statement said.

The targeted companies own 174 fossil fuel-burning power plants that produce 646 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, about 10 percent of the nation's total, according to the July 16 document. They are: American Electric Power Co., Southern Co., Xcel Energy Inc., Cinergy Corp. and the federal Tennessee Valley Authority.

Carbon dioxide is believed to be one of the main culprits of global warming. The greenhouse gas is produced when coal, gasoline and other fossil fuels burn. If nothing is done, climatologists forecast continued temperature increases that will cause rising tides, droughts, and other climate disruptions.

The statement said CO2 emissions can be reduced by increasing efficiency at coal-burning plants, switching from coal to cleaner burning fuels, investing in energy conservation and using clean energy sources such as wind and solar power. <snip>

[hatrack]

3. Bush-Cheney 2004 - Making your air cleaner by cutting inspections in half!

I think I smell a slogan in there somewhere . . .

[tom_paine]

4. Again confirming the obvious. I could have told you that by inference

Totalitarian Nations are EASY to predict and figure out. Imperial Amerika is no different from Nazi Germany in this regard.

The lies are obvious and usually told brazenly. All things which served the People in any way, now do the opposite, and work to keep the people ignroant and isolated while serving their Masters.

Of course, as Imperial Amerika is still in trasition, Pollution Enfoprcement Actions won't go straight to 0.

They will just keep going down until they reach a number so low it might as well be zero as the honest portions of EPA, FDA, FCC, and the rest, are replaced by Corrupt Imperial Toadies.

This makes perfect sense and was, of course, painfully obvious without a Free Amwerican having to see anything (much the way a 1978 Russian KNEW that Toilet Paper Production hadn't risen 600%).

Of course this is happening. And I can tell you with the certainty of a 1933 German or a 1978 Soviet that such is occurring at EVERY regulatory agency.

Guaranteed.

Was Hitler an anti-Semite?

[adriennel]

5. Very True!

The current EPA Administrator is a business man (and very successful business man, as he has said several times.) Absolutely NO environmental experience whatsoever. From a western state with a less than spectacular environmental policy. A true believer that "voluntary" pollution controls for businesses are more successful than regulations and enforcement (my opinion, this is totally BS. The only action corporations take "voluntarily" is that which improves profits.)

Also, the EPA is at the mercy of the Bush Administration. Lots of hard-working people who are truly concerned with the state and science of environmental protection are simply ignored because of Bush Admin supression and labeling environmental research as unsound, unproven science.

This really cheeses me off

:grr:

[pinniped]

11. Jerk's an asshole appointed by idiot *.

It's going to take many years to undo the damage these "thugs" are doing.

[louis-t]

6. This is what happens when you put

former industry lobbyists in charge of everything.

[evworldeditor]

7. The Appalling Politics of Oil

NOW with Bill Moyer's interviews Charles Lewis on role of oil industry in controlling US policy. I recorded the segment to MP3 audio.


http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=720

[primavera]

8. That's because they clean their house instead of the air

I have an attorney friend who worked in the environmental enforcement division at DoJ, the division responsible for prosecuting industrial polluters. She no longer works there because, when the shrub usurped President Gore's office, one of the first orders of business was to go through and transfer all of the attorneys in charge of litigating cases to work in the mail room and replacing them with appointees from the general counsel's offices of the defendants in the suits. Interestingly enough, the new appointees all concluded that there was insufficient cause to proceed with the government's law suits against their former employers and they all promptly settled the cases out of court for a six pack of Coors and a quart of pork fried rice. It's hardly surprising therefore to find that government actions against polluters have all but disappeared.

[struggle4progress]

9. kick

:kick:

[primavera]

10. kick

:kick: