With benign-sounding proposals like the "Healthy Forests Initiative" and "Clear Skies Initiative," the Bush administration has been accused by environmentalists of rolling back environmental protections. Now, new research has determined that under Bush, enforcement of environmental laws has dropped off sharply as well.
The research was conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data gathering and research center at Syracuse University. [1] Using Justice Department information gathered under the Freedom of Information Act, TRAC looked at 20,000 criminal defendants charged with violating environmental laws, covering the years 1993 to 2004.
From the first Clinton term to the second Clinton term, environmental prosecutions jumped 28 percent. But from the second Clinton term to the current Bush years, prosecutions dropped 23 percent.
Likewise, the number of convictions declined under Bush, and the number of defendants who actually went to prison dropped significantly. During the Bush years the number of defendants who served time dropped 28 percent from the previous administration.
###
SOURCES:
[1] TRAC Report.
