May 11, 2009 (Washington, DC)-As American manufacturer WR Grace was acquitted in its trial on criminal charges under the federal Clean Air Act, The Institute for Liberty, an organization focused on the impact of government policies on small business and entrepreneurship, sees this as yet another example of an environmental enforcement policy detached from the realities of true environmental protection.

"The Grace case, the most costly criminal environmental case in American history, has become another chapter in a story of environmental enforcement policies that are simply out of control," said Andrew Langer, IFL's President. "The allegations of prosecutorial misconduct are chilling, and the fact that the EPA and Justice would pursue a case when the laws they were enforcing weren't even enacted at the time Grace was doing business should give every American pause. Nobody is safe when government can act so cavalierly."

"Though it has been used for thousands of years, asbestos has now become a taboo product," Langer continued. "We're not saying that all asbestos is safe, and we're not saying that there aren't unsafe levels of asbestos exposure. But asbestos policy in America must be based on sound science-not the irrational fear mongering that this case so clearly represented. If there is to be true justice that comes out of this case, it will be found in an immediate, science-based reassessment of the nation's asbestos policy."