Georgia "collected more than $30 million in fees from Georgians last year for programs designed to clean up landfills, tire dumps and hazardous sites and to improve 911 services. The governor and state lawmakers put less than $2 million of the fee revenue toward those programs."
"President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he would order a government-wide review of regulations with the goal of eliminating those that hurt job creation and make the U.S. economy less competitive."
The Obama administration's efforts to toughen mine safety enforcement, following the Upper Big Branch disaster in April that killed 29, are encountering the same old evade-and-delay resistance from the mining industry. Those are the tactics that appear to have led to the disaster in the first place.
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will directly enforce new greenhouse-gas rules in parts of Arizona after the state refused to submit its own program for controlling the pollutants."
The US Environmental Protection Agency's Compliance and Enforcement information for 2010 is now online with data mapped and searchable by criteria such as state, city, zip code, and type of media affected (air, water, etc.).
"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."
The Senate's Nov. 30 vote not to impose a moratorium on "earmarks" practically ensures that pork-barrel spending will live on as a subject for journalists — at least in fiscal 2011.
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