266 new criminal cases and 411 civil cases were launched in 1998. In addition, EPA reports that its enforcement actions have lead to substantial pollution reductions. It now gets more than 40 million hits a month. This site contains a Center for Environmental Information and Statistics that gives an environmental profile for every part of the country by zipcode, the Toxic Release Inventory , nine compliance assistance centres for industry sectors, and much more. The Sector Facility Indexing Project publishes chemical releases and compliance histories for 653 major industrial facilities.
Market based air pollution trading is well established.
The auction gives power plants, brokers and private citizens the chance to buy and sell allowances, each of which gives a power plant the right to emit one ton of SO2 in or after a designated year. There were 3 times as many bids as allowances. EPA also reports that voluntary initiatives are being used effectively. Eg., auto manufacturers can switch from emission testing prototypes to testing actual cars. The new system will produce more realistic results at half the cost.