Study: Agencies Flout Environmental Rules More than Private Firms

Government Executive reports:

Government-owned power plants, hospitals and water utilities fall short in complying with federal environmental laws more often than similar private-sector entities, an academic study found.

Publicly owned facilities are less likely to face fines or other sanctions for violations than are those owned and run by private firms, according to an examination of records of plants regulated under the Clean Air Act and Safe Drinking Water Act from 2001-2011.

Published last month in the American Journal of Political Science, the study titled "When Governments Regulate Governments" also found that regulatory authorities are less vigorous in enforcing the rules when they are regulating other governments.

“The findings are significant but not surprising,” said co-author David Konisky of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. He and co–author Manny Teodoro, associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University, viewed records from more than 3,000 power plants, 1,000 hospitals and 4,200 water utilities.

Their findings:

Public power plants and hospitals were on average 9 percent more likely to be out of compliance with Clean Air Act regulations and 20 percent more likely to have committed high-priority violations;
Public water utilities had on average 14 percent more Safe Drinking Water Act health violations and were 29 percent more likely to commit monitoring violations;
Public power plants and hospitals that violated the Clean Air Act were 1 percent less likely than private-sector violators to receive a punitive sanction and 20 percent less likely to be fined;
Public water utilities that violated Safe Drinking Water Act standards were 3 percent less likely than investor-owned utilities to receive formal enforcement actions.

Government is "above the law". Accountability from "representative government" is a myth. Accountability - in society- can only come from property rights , contracts, and free markets. Greedy overpaid government workers aren't a substitute for tort law. After all, what incentive does a government worker have to follow the law?