Another indication of reduced enforcement: by September of last year the EPA had levied $41 million in penalties—about $8 million fewer than in the same period of the Biden administration’s first year after adjusting for inflation. The report suggests “the Trump Administration may be letting more polluters get by with a slap on the wrist when the Administration does take enforcement action.”
Altogether, the decline in lawsuits, fines and other enforcement measures for environmental violations could have consequences for communities nationwide, said Erika Kranz, a senior staff attorney in the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School, who was not part of the report.
“The administration has been deregulating by rolling back rules and extending compliance deadlines, and this drop in enforcement looks like another tool being used to downplay environmental and public-health protections,” Kranz said. “They all seem connected, and if you’re someone in the U.S. concerned about your health and that of your neighbors, these changes could have real effects.”
The report notes many court cases run longer than a year, so it will take time before a clearer picture emerges of how environmental enforcement is shifting under the Trump administration. Still, early data gathered by the Environmental Integrity Project and other nonprofits indicate a sharp and unmistakable move away from legal actions against polluters.
“Historically, administrations have had substantial leeway in making enforcement decisions,” Kranz said, but she added that a drop this pronounced could lead to lawsuits challenging the Trump administration.
“Given these significant changes and trends, groups may argue this goes beyond ordinary discretion or priority-setting and instead amounts to an abdication of an agency’s core mission and statutory duties,” Kranz said. “It will be interesting to see whether organizations press those claims and how courts address them.”
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
