Regulatory Forbearance Enables Oil Pollution

State regulators repeatedly declined to impose formal penalties on one company despite thousands of pollution reports, allowing operations to resume without meaningful consequence. The result: ongoing environmental damage (wastewater purges, salt scars) and a pattern of few enforcement outcomes — less than a third of recent cases led to punishment. — Shows how internal agency choices to avoid formal enforcement can translate into sustained environmental harm and erode public trust in regulatory institutions.