Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: than merely compensating it.Good regulation enforced aggressively to prevent harm is always a better choice.But congressional conservatives and their industry allies have embarked on a highly successful strategy of starving and badgering the agencies-even the Environmental Protection Agency, the strongest and most rebellious among them-into quiescence.In the vacuum that remains, criminal prosecutions, especially of individual senior executives, have a better potential to deter violations than the broken regulatory system.This Essay explores, contrasts, and compares the two most prominent criminal cases that have emerged in the last several years: the $4 billion criminal settlement with British Petroleum that resulted from the Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill and the VW cheat device scandal.The similarities between the two cases are chilling.They suggest that until and unless the regulatory state is not just revived but greatly strengthened, a result that does not seem foreseeable in the near-term, criminal prosecution is the best hope for people who believe that the government must redouble its efforts to preserve natural resources and protect the public health.I.
Author: Steinzor, Rena I.
Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore
Language: English
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2350117237