The Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump has taken a more lenient approach in enforcing federal pollution laws than the two previous administrations, according to a report in the New York Times.
The agency in nine months has started fewer cases than the Obama and Bush administration in that same time span, sought less civil penalties from polluters and has cut back on enforcing companies to retrofit their factories to cut pollution.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Trump's pick who was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 17, is less focused on seeking large penalties compared to his predecessors, according to officials who spoke to the Times.
"EPA and states work together to find violators and bring them back into compliance, and to punish intentional polluters," the EPA said in a statement.
"We focus more on bringing people back into compliance than bean counting," the statement said.
During the first nine months of Pruitt’s tenure, the EPA sought civil penalties of about $50.4 million from polluters which, adjusted for inflation, is about 70 percent of what the Bush administration sought and about 39 percent of what the Obama administration sought in the same time frame.
Also under Pruitt, the agency sought injunctive relief of about $1.2 billion stemming from new cases which, adjusted for inflation, is about 48 percent of what was sought under Bush and about 12 percent of what was sought under Obama.
The EPA has filed at least 1,850 civil cases against polluters during Pruitt’s tenure, compared to at least 2,600 filed by the Bush and Obama administrations.
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