From: Salon
“Over the last two decades, according to the report, EPA civil penalties averaged more than $500 million a year (an average adjusted for inflation). The last fiscal year was nearly 85 percent below that, at $72 million. Barack Obama's former EPA assistant administrator, Cynthia Giles, conducted the analysis which was reviewed by the Environmental Integrity Project and told the Post that lower civil penalties could threaten the EPA’s ability to avert any wrongdoings of polluters.”