The Bush administration wants to shift significant responsibility for enforcing federal environmental laws from the U.S. EPA to the states. The fiscal year 2002 budget proposed by the White House would eliminate funding for 9 percent of the federal enforcement staff and instead provide states with money for enforcement grants and environmental assessments. EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman said yesterday that states are better positioned to clamp down on pollution. But many environmental groups think the shift would result in less enforcement and more pollution. Some states have a checkered record of enforcement, letting slide even egregious pollution problems. Meanwhile, Koch Industries, one of the country’s largest petroleum companies, agreed yesterday to pay $20 million in fines for concealing air-quality violations — the fifth-largest settlement ever reached in a federal environmental crimes case.
