EPA Penalties Decline From Last FY

[Rodent + 1,424]

EPA penalties were significantly less this last fiscal year, partially under Trump administration. To be fair, part of it was under Obama and part was under Trump, and much of the fines levied in the most recent fiscal year would have had to have been in the pipeline under Obama because it takes a while. BUT, current penalties in the works, submitted to the DOJ, are also down, which falls under Trump's reign. 

I think to levy fewer penalties is VERY BAD for the industry. Clean it up, hold oil and gas companies responsible (and automakers, a shout out to crooked Volkswagen here) for every spill, every violation, and the industry would benefit from a new and improved reputation. Allow them to run roughshod and the industry suffers.

Not smart, Trump admin. You need to do better. If you expect fossil fuels to withstand the environmentalists, you need to stop giving them ammo.

[李伟王芳 + 77]

and Trump just nominated Andrew Wheeler, longtime lobbyist for the coal industry, to be the #2 person at EPA. Future is bright 

[JohnAtronis + 78]

At least, Trump's EPA isn't causing environmental disasters like Obama's EPA did in Colorado.

[李伟王芳 + 77]

polluters were fined a total of $1.6 billion in penalties in fiscal year 2017 — about a fifth of the $5.7 billion EPA penalties collected the year prior, under Obama. I guess the difference will be donation to GOP

[Rodent + 1,424]

Just now, 李伟王芳 said:

polluters were fined a total of $1.6 billion in penalties in fiscal year 2017 — about a fifth of the $5.7 billion EPA penalties collected the year prior, under Obama. I guess the difference will be donation to GOP

but many of the cases levied in FY 2017 were started under Obama. There is a lag--they are not instantaneous. And because it's FY, Obama shared several months of that FY, to be fair. I'm not saying all the blame lies there, I'm just saying it's not a 100% usable metric. It's easy to say Trump's era has fewer prosecutions, but he really only shared a few months of those fines. 

That said, I'm not sure we'll see a huge increase in the next fiscal year, which will be all Trump admin.  They would do much better to have strict penalties, as I opined earlier. This shouldn't be political, but if coal and oil are to survive, we must manage them better.