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In a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to enforce environmental laws in the US has come under close scrutiny.

The Environmental Integrity Project was founded by Eric Shaeffer after resigning from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2002. Shaeffer's resignation was caused by his frustration at the Bush Administration's efforts to weaken enforcement of the Clean Air Act.

Schaeffer said: ?The bad news here is that it now costs less to pollute. Over the past five years under the Bush Administration's EPA and Department of Justice, environmental violators have been less likely to face court actions, be subject to criminal investigation, or pay civil or criminal penalties.?

The report found that the Department of Justice has filed fewer than 16 lawsuits a year since 2001. This contrasts with 52 lawsuits a year in the last three years of President Clinton's tenure. Civil penalties are down 24%, and criminal fines are down 38%

Explaining the report's data, Schaeffer said that the EPA?s enforcement programme ?is threatened by the EPA administrators' continued efforts to weaken the environmental laws its own staff keep trying to enforce. The Office of Air and Radiation has undone some of these benefits by boring new loopholes in the Clean Air Act that weaken emission monitoring requirements and exempt major sources like power plants and the ethanol industry from regulation.?

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