For the second session in a row, Gov. Rick Scott made no progress toward his re-election campaign promise to enact tougher environmental penalties.

"Gov. Scott will propose legislation to increase penalties to ensure fines match the value of Florida's natural resources, and also provide agencies with the flexibility to analyze the past actions of those seeking environmental permits in Florida," Scott promised during his 2014 re-election campaign.

But so far, his priority has been helping businesses avoid fines. There has been one bill intended to increase fines for only a tiny slice of businesses regulated by the environmental department -- oil and gas -- and that has failed.

In 2016, legislators proposed a bill that set rules for "high-pressure well stimulation" -- a controversial type of oil and gas extraction known as fracking. The bill would have increased the civil penalty from $10,000 per day to $25,000 per day for violations that would have harmed the air, water, animals or property.

This year, the oil and gas industry spent nearly $500,000 in donations to legislators' political committees trying to authorize fracking, the Miami Herald found. But ultimately their efforts failed amid local opposition to fracking during an election year.

The bill passed some committees but never made it to a full vote in the Senate or the House and died for the year when the session ended March 11.

We asked spokespersons for Scott and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) if he still plans to pursue his promise. Scott's office deferred to the DEP.

"The Florida Department of Environmental Protection continues to focus on protecting Florida's environment," said Lauren Engel, spokeswoman for DEP. "We believe in prevention -- focusing on what we can do to prevent impacts to our natural resources. Compliance rates across the department's regulatory programs remain at record highs, which can be attributed to concerted and continued outreach efforts to businesses."

The compliance rate was 97 percent in 2015, Engel said.

But the number of enforcement cases opened and penalties assessed under Scott's tenure has nosedived. During Scott's first term, the state's emphasis shifted from prosecuting violations to helping the industry avoid fines. For the 2015 calendar year, DEP assessed about $866,000 penalties combined in 179 cases.

A watchdog group that tracks environmental fines says that many violations result in no enforcement action or only minor fines. In some cases, inspectors are labeling the cases "areas of concern" rather than "violations," said Jerry Phillips, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in Florida.

"Under Governor Rick Scott, the number of hazardous waste violation cases brought has plummeted by more than 80 percent and the level of fines assessed has dropped by more than 90 percent," according to a Jan. 21 press release from Public Employees for Professional Responsibility.

Scott still has two more sessions to advocate for legislation to increase penalties for polluters, but so far he hasn't shown any interest. In fact, his administration has a record of trying to help the industry avoid fines.

We rate this Promise Broken.