Environmental Liabilities : EPA Should Do More to Ensure That Liable Parties Meet Their Cleanup Obligations

The burden of cleaning up Superfund & other haz. waste sites is increasingly shifting to taxpayers, part'y. since bus. handling haz. sub. are no longer taxed under Superfund & the backlog of sites needing cleanup is growing. While environ. laws rely on the polluter paysÓ principle, the extent to which liable parties cease oper. or restructure can directly affect the cleanup costs faced by taxpayers. This report: determines how many bus. with liab. under fed. law for environ. cleanups have declared bankruptcy, & how many such cases the gov't. has pursued in court; identifies challenges the EPA faces in holding bankrupt & other financially distressed bus. resp. for their cleanup oblig.; & identifies actions that EPA could take to ensure that bus. pay for their cleanups.Stephenson, John B. is the author of 'Environmental Liabilities : EPA Should Do More to Ensure That Liable Parties Meet Their Cleanup Obligations', published 2005 under ISBN 9781422302675 and ISBN 1422302679.