The Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush has overstated its success in fighting polluters by lumping counterterrorism and narcotics cases led by other agencies into its environmental enforcement record, a Bee investigation has found.
The performance inflation masks a significant drop-off in the federal government's pursuit of criminal polluters during the past two years, according to interviews with EPA agents and officials, analyses of EPA enforcement statistics and reviews of internal agency records.
"We were encouraged to... find anything that's got any breath to it and put a case number on it," one senior agent said. "We were approaching the end of a fiscal year. They wanted to make it look like a good year."
"Clear Skies" ... Right ... Anytime these guys put a fine-sounding name on some legislation, check your wallet.