EPA director steps down, and tells you why.
Eric V. Schaeffer is Director, Office of Regulatory Enforcement, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
March 3, 2002
Christine Whitman, Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20004
Dear Ms. Whitman:
I resign today from the Environmental Protection Agency after 12 years of service, the last five as the Director of the Office of Regulatory Enforcement. I am grateful for the opportunities ...
But I cannot leave without sharing my frustration about the fate of our enforcement actions against power companies that have violated the Clean Air Act. Between November of 1999 and December of 2000, EPA filed lawsuits against nine power companies for expanding their plants, without obtaining New Source Review permits and the up to date pollution controls required by law. The companies named in our lawsuits emit an incredible 5.0 million tons of sulfur dioxide every year (a quarter of the emissions in the entire country), as well as 2 million tons of nitrogen oxide.
As the scale of pollution from these coal-fired smokestacks is immense, so is the damage to public health. ...