EPA Uses Coronavirus as an Excuse Not to Regulate Polluters
loosening of environmental regulations allows power plants and
factories, as well as other facilities to self-assess their own ability
to follow the legal requirements for reporting air and water pollutions,
according to The New York Times.
The easing of restrictions comes as several companies have complained
recently that layoffs, personnel restrictions, and other issues related
to the pandemic would make compliance difficult.
The temporary easing of regulations has no set end date, allowing a
number of industries to ignore environmental laws since the agency
announced that it will not “seek penalties for noncompliance with
routine monitoring and reporting obligations,” according to The Hill. While the oil and gas
industries were amongst the known polluters asking for a relaxation of
the rules, the announcement showed a sweeping relaxation of the rules,
“forgoing fines or other civil penalties for companies that failed to
monitor, report or meet some other requirements for releasing hazardous
pollutants,” as the AP reported.
While companies are normally
required to report when they discharge pollutants into the water or air,
the new policy memo states:
In general, the E.P.A. does not expect to seek penalties for violations
of routine compliance monitoring, integrity testing, sampling,
laboratory analysis, training, and reporting or certification
obligations in situations where the E.P.A. agrees that Covid-19 was the
cause of the noncompliance and the entity provides supporting
documentation to the E.P.A. upon request.