US EPA Signals a New Era of Regulatory Enforcement

On March 16, 2009, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson issued a memorandum halting the Performance Track Program. In her memo, Administrator Jackson recognizes accomplishments of Performance Track. However, she says, and I quote, "Now it is time to pause and reflect on Performance Track's achievements and opportunities for improvements. Performance Track was developed in a different era and may not speak to today's challenges. There has been much recent discussion about the benefits of the program. Members of Congress and stakeholders have also asked us to pause and consider what approaches might be best for the future. Therefore, I have decided to halt the current Performance Track Program with the intent of refining those concepts that can lead us to a stronger system of environmental protection as we go forward."

The "different era" was one of relaxed enforcement of environmental regulations during the previous Administration. It appears that the current Administration is going to step up its level of inspections and enforcement activity. It seems that swinging the regulatory hammer is more important than encouraging voluntary initiatives via incentives that include less scrutiny and regulatory oversight. To me, this is confirmed, by Administrator Jackson's comment earlier in her memo where she states, "These stewardship initiatives should not take the place of our regulatory framework but should augment it by bringing to bear advanced technology and innovation to achieve progress on emerging problems that our regulations do not yet address."

For those of you who have participated in the Performance Track program with success, thank you for your leadership and your commitment to going above and beyond what's required by statute and regulation. I hope that your successes led to improved performance, reduced operating risk, and enhanced compliance. Please do not stop the value-added business activities Performance Track catalyzed just because US EPA may not continue the program and its incentives.

Now what? With the potential for increase in US regulatory enforcement, the growing demand for Greenhouse Gas reporting and Carbon Accounting, and the push to make our businesses Sustainable, we need to efficiently manage data and information that the regulators will use to evaluate compliance, and that our stakeholders will use to evaluate our business and environmental performance. We want to collect that data and information once and report it many times. To that end, we deploy a central repository for our EHS compliance requirements, GHG emissions inventory, and Sustainability initiatives. The repository provides us the digital means of determining compliance, making sustainable business decisions, and submitting reports to our multiple stakeholders. And, the most cost effective and technologically savvy vehicle today is an Internet-based EHS Management Software as a Service delivered through the clouds. Contact Enviance to find out more.