The Bush administration recently issued standards that will weaken and delay efforts to reduce highly toxic mercury emissions from power plants, which can fall to the ground with rain and enter bodies of water.

The Bush administration is pursuing and punishing far fewer polluters than the two previous administrations, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The newspaper obtained 15 years of environmental records for 17 different categories and subcategories of enforcement activity through Freedom of Information Act requests. In 13 of these categories, the Bush administration had lower average numbers than the Clinton administration, according to the Inquirer, and in 11 categories, the 2003 average was lower than the 2001 average, revealing a downward trend.

The number of toxic waste sites cleaned up under the Superfund program declined for the third straight year, according to a recent EPA report. In fiscal year 2003, EPA completed work at just 40 toxic waste sites, compared with 42 in FY 2002 and 47 in FY 2001. In the last four years of the Clinton administration, EPA completed an average of 87 cleanups per year. “We just have fewer dollars to start new projects,” Marianne Horinko, an EPA associate administrator who oversees toxic cleanup, told the New York Times.

Under the Bush administration, OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has significantly affected the substance of health, safety and environmental standards but failed to consistently document its influence, according to a report by the General Accounting Office (GAO).