Two new U.S. government reports raise big concerns about a Bush administration plan to cut federal environmental enforcement staff by 8 percent and shift resources to the states. A report by the U.S. EPA’s inspector general found that states are doing a poor job of monitoring and punishing water polluters. A report by the General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency, said the administration couldn’t show that the states would make up for the cuts in federal enforcement staff. Ed Kratzer, an author of the GAO report, said, “It cannot be demonstrated that [the shift] won’t cause unwanted adverse effects.”
