Another sign of a decline in enforcement: As of September last year, the EPA had issued $41 million in fines after adjusting for inflation — $8 million less than the same period in the first year of the Biden administration. This suggests that “the Trump administration could release more polluters with a slap on the wrist when it takes enforcement action,” the report reads.
Combined, the lack of prosecutions, penalties and other enforcement actions for environmental violations could impact communities across the country, said Erica Kranz, a senior staff attorney in the environmental and energy law program at Harvard Law School, who was not involved in the report.
“We are seeing the Administration deregulation by repealing rules and extending compliance deadlines, and this decline in enforcement action seems like another mechanism the Administration is using to de-emphasize environmental and public health protections,” Kranz said. “It all appears to be connected, and if you’re a person in America who is concerned about your health and the health of your neighbors, it can certainly have an impact.”
The report notes that many court cases last more than a year, so it will take time to clearly understand how environmental enforcement is changing under the Trump administration. However, preliminary data compiled by the Environmental Integrity Project and other nonprofits shows a clear and sharp shift away from legal actions against polluters.
Historically, the administration has had “a lot of leeway to make enforcement decisions,” Kranz said. But this steep decline could lead to lawsuits against the Trump administration, he said.
“Looking at these big changes and trends, you can see groups arguing that this is about more than just exercising discretion or choosing priorities [and] This is an abdication of an agency’s core mission and its statutory duties,” Kranz said. “I think it will be interesting to see if groups make these arguments, and if they do, how the courts view them.”
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
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