EPA hails 'revitalized' enforcement efforts as Biden administration heads to exit
The Environmental Protection Agency says it concluded more than 1,850 civil cases this year, a 3.4% increase over 2023, and charged 121 criminal defendants, a 17.6% increase over the previous year
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency enhanced enforcement efforts this year, doubling financial penalties issued to polluters and issuing the first-ever arrest for a climate change-related crime, the agency said in a report Thursday.
The EPA said it concluded more than 1,850 civil cases, a 3.4% increase over 2023, and charged 121 criminal defendants, a 17.6% increase over the previous year. The “revitalized enforcement and compliance efforts" resulted in the reduction or elimination of more than 225 million pounds of pollution in overburdened communities, the agency said in its final report on Biden-era enforcement actions before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
The agency said it issued $1.7 billion in fines and penalties, more than double the 2023 total and the highest level in seven years.
Bolstered by 300 new employees hired since last year, the enforcement program focused on “21st century environmental challenges," including climate change, environmental justice and chemical waste, said David Uhlmann, EPA's assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance. More than half the agency’s inspections and settlements involved poor and disadvantaged communities long scarred by pollution, reflecting the Biden administration’s emphasis on environmental justice issues.
Enforcement efforts included first-ever criminal charges for a climate change-related crime. A California man was charged in March with smuggling climate-damaging air coolants into the United States. The case involved
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