An American-based NGO has claimed in a study last week that the number of lawsuits filed against polluters and other environmental offenders has fallen by 75% since President George W. Bush took over, signalling a slack approach to green legislation. The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) report compared the environmental track record from the tail-end of the Clinton Administration to the first three years of the Bush Administration.

According to the report, enforcement of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act by the existing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come to a “near standstill”, while legal actions against major polluters such as oil and energy companies have also dropped sharply.

More than 150 lawsuits were filed against corporates in breach of green regulations in the last three years of the Clinton-era EPA, compared to just 36 enforcements by the Bush Administration.

Eric Schaeffer - Director of the EIP and former head of the EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement - who compiled the report, said; “The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have gotten shy about taking polluters to court lately. A review of publicly available data shows that civil lawsuits for violation of anti-pollution laws have declined... thanks to White House decisions to rewrite environmental rules and put the brakes on enforcement actions.”

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