"EPA's Rule Enforcement on Pollution Has Dropped"

"Texas Gov. Rick Perry has warned that the Environmental Protection Agency is punishing Texas by rejecting a state clean-air permitting program and advancing a scheme to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.

But new data shows that EPA enforcement of existing regulations under the Obama administration has fallen by several key measures. In Texas, the amount of pollution that companies agreed to reduce – as a result of enforcement cases – fell 74 percent in 2009-10 from 2007-08. Nationwide, it fell 57 percent.

Furthermore, the amount that polluters agreed to spend nationwide to upgrade controls and cleanup fell to $17.4 billion in 2009-10, from $22.3 billion in 2007-08. In Texas, the amount increased, from $742 "

Dave Michaels reports for the Dallas Morning News December 21, 2010.