Administrative Monetary Penalties: A Tool for Ensuring Compliance

Administrative Monetary Penalties ("AMP"s) are one of an array of enforcement options that includes warning letters, tickets, permit cancellations and criminal prosecutions. What distinguishes AMPs from other means of ensuring compliance with the law is that AMPs involve a penalty imposed by law or by government officials rather than by the courts. AMPs can be a useful tool for increasing compliance with any environmental regulations. They are essential to some economic instrument programs which both depend on very high rates of compliance and create new incentives to the break the law.