One-year bill for EPA enforcement: $10.3 billion

The Environmental Protection Agency, under GOP fire for handing down expensive penalties and bulking up on unreasonable rules, on Thursday put the price tag of its actions against polluters at over $10 billion this year alone.

The total cost was slightly more than $10.3 billion. The bulk was the result of enforcement actions that “required companies to invest more than $9.7 billion in actions and equipment to control pollution and clean up contaminated sites,” said the agency in a year-end report.