What This Bill Does:

• Helps to save taxpayers from subsidizing pollution.
• Prevents polluters from benefiting economically from breaking environmental laws.
• Bars chronic violators from receiving some state contracts, and rewards those who consistently obey the law.
• Makes information on the state's environmental enforcement efforts public.
• Helps protect the state’s quality of life, livability, health, and safety.

Why This Bill Is Needed:

1. Congress and state legislators have passed bills to protect our health.  Increasingly these standards are not being enforced.

Two separate audits from EPA's Inspector General recently found inadequate state enforcement of clean air standards and the Clean Water Act, noting that nearly 40 percent of the nation's waters do not meet CWA standards.(1)

2. Without tough penalties, polluters can actually profit from damaging the environment even after being penalized.

3. There has been a national push to adopt irresponsible “assistance programs” instead of real enforcement.

A handful of studies have compared deterrence-based enforcement to compliance assistance programs, all finding the same result - that deterrence-based strategies are more effective than heavy reliance on compliance assistance programs.(1)

4. There is no proof that assistance programs work by themselves.

Given the dramatic drop in inspections, along with an absence of research -- both governmental and academic -- that proves the effectiveness of specific compliance assistance programs, states have switched to compliance assistance at the expense of deterrence-based enforcement based on faith not facts.(1)

5. Helping polluters achieve compliance does not mean there should not be accountability. A responsible enforcement policy should have penalties, not just incentives. 

This Bill Also...

• Demands that current law be enforced, and that polluters not profit from breaking the law and bilking taxpayers with costs of clean-up and harm. 
• Gives citizens and legislators the tools they need to maintain accountability. 
• Ensures the state sends a consistent message to permit violators and compliers, by limiting state contracts to those willing to obey the law.