by Michael McGrady
The Heartland Institute

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is phasing out its special focus on pollution enforcement against the oil and gas industry and livestock producers.

In place of  heightened scrutiny on these two industries enacted under former President Barack Obama, EPA will broaden its anti-pollution enforcement efforts to a wider array of industrial and commercial entities, says Susan Bodine, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance…

EPA’s actions should improve environmental outcomes, says attorney Steve Milloy, a senior policy fellow for the Energy & Environment Legal Institute and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, which publishes Environment & Climate News.

“The shift here is that enforcement actions will go against facilities and activities causing actual harm to the environment, versus those that merely technically violate their permits or regulations, no longer focusing EPA’s efforts on ‘gotcha violations’ in the oil and gas industry as opposed to serious breaches in any regulated industry,” Milloy said. “’No harm, no foul’ is the basic principle.”

Read more.