Frank O'Donnell is president of Clean Air Watch, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization aimed at educating the public about clean air and the need for an effective Clean Air Act.
It didn't make headlines, but a report last week by EPA's inspector general was noteworthy for what it didn't say. The report, a review of EPA's enforcement activities, made no recommendations for improvement—a real rarity since most reports of this sort come with a laundry list of suggested changes.
And therein lies a tale.
In an administration better known for obstructing justice than executing it (Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter), about 3,400 diligent EPA enforcers are still grinding away—and achieving positive results. And they are doing it despite high-level, pro-polluter meddling by Bush political appointees. In fact, EPA lawsuits and settlements are resulting in a reduction, on average, of about 2.5 million pounds of pollution per day.
I hesitate to report on this for fear that the White House might try to retaliate against these eco-cops. But now that there's a Democratic Congress as a buffer, I think it's appropriate to salute the men and women of EPA who generally fly under the radar, but who are still working quietly for the public interest.
For EPA's enforcers, most of who work outside D.C., it's been a rocky ride for much of these past seven years. Some of the best and brightest (including my friend, Eric Schaeffer, now head of the Environmental Integrity Project) resigned from EPA after the White House ordered the agency to go soft on the coal-burning electric power industry, which had been targeted for cleanup by the Clinton EPA's enforcement office. Indeed, as The Washington Post recently noted, this Dick Cheney-led polluter protection strategy also drove out EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman.
For a long time, it was also chaos at the top of EPA's enforcement division. Congress refused to confirm President Bush's first choice to head the department, former Ohio EPA chief Donald Schregardus, following scrutiny of his lackluster record.
Ex-New Jersey Governor Whitman then brought in her former head of casino oversight, J.P. Suarez. He bailed out soon after she did, later telling a reporter that the Bush "reform" program for electric power plants years "doesn't pass the laugh test" and would "eviscerate" the agency's utility enforcement effort. (The "reform" plan consisted of weakening pollution requirements so that far fewer cases could be brought against these smokestack villains.)
Even though EPA's detective squad has stabilized under the direction of former Kirkland & Ellis lawyer-lobbyist Granta Nakayama, to this day, the Bush administration's air pollution enforcement policy remains restricted to potential lawbreakers who are out of step with the Clean Air Act as interpreted by Dick Cheney. Power plant prosecutions have become so rare that it should have made banner headlines last month when a Kentucky power cooperative was caught so blatantly violating the law that it agreed to spend more than $654 million on pollution cleanup.
Which is what makes it all the more remarkable that EPA's police squad has done as well as it has. Though they've been handcuffed in going after power companies, these environmental gumshoes have remained on patrol in other cases.
Last month's targets included Dow Chemical, General Electric—even Target.
And if you think the Pentagon is untouchable in the Bush era, guess again. EPA's constables recently ordered the Air Force to clean up a base in New Jersey.
A program begun last year to encourage the public to blow the whistle on suspected environmental evil-doers has prompted an outpouring of calls and e-mails to EPA.
My friends with the Environmental Integrity Project note correctly that civil and criminal penalties have declined in recent years compared with those under the Clinton Administration.
Even so, the value of EPA enforcement settlements has gone up—totaling more than $26 billion dollars between fiscal years 2002 and 2006. That's probably a minor miracle given the amount of high-level political meddling by Bush politicos. And it's a tribute to the enforcers who have continued diligently to try to protect the environment.
Now if only they could get someone in the White House who wanted to do the same.
