Enforcement of laws against polluters nearly non-existent in US, analysis finds | Trump administration

Enforcement of environmental laws against major polluters has all but stopped under the Trump administration, a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency records from January 2025 to January 2026 shows.

Top polluters typically include some of the largest companies in the oil, gas, coal and chemical sectors.

Records show the EPA has filed just one Clean Air Act consent decree, compared to 26 in the first year of Trump’s first term and 22 in Biden’s first year. Consent decrees are the legal mechanism by which the agency and the U.S. Department of Justice enforce environmental laws against major polluters.

The agency appears to have similarly slowed enforcement of Superfund laws, which cover cleanup of the nation’s most polluted sites. He has filed only seven consent decrees, compared to 31 during the first Trump administration.

The number of Clean Water Act enforcement actions also declined significantly, from a high of 18 during Biden’s first year, to four during the second Trump administration, according to analysis by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer).

The EPA’s enforcement program “is dying, and that’s intentional,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Peer and a former EPA lawyer.

“Without an adequate enforcement program that deters polluters, laws become voluntary, and when laws become voluntary, many businesses choose to ignore them because they know there are no consequences,” Whitehouse said. “This means more pollution for communities near the facilities and more profits for the polluters.”

The analysis only focused on major cases. When the EPA investigates a major case, it forwards the allegations to the Justice Department, which files a complaint against the polluter in federal court and seeks a settlement.

Major lawsuits are typically filed against large companies, including Volkswagen, which in 2017 agreed to pay $1.4 billion for a Clean Air Act violation for installing “defeat devices” that evaded emissions testing. In Indiana in 2023, the EPA found that BP was emitting dangerous levels of highly toxic VOCs into the air and required it to pay $250 million in penalties and remediation. Norfolk Southern, which was responsible for the 2023 train crash in East Palestine, Ohio, settled for $335 million for Clean Water Act violations, including penalties and cleanup.

Similar blockbuster deals are now rare, industry observers say.

An EPA spokesperson defended the administration’s enforcement record in a statement to the Guardian.

“Unlike the last administration, we are focused on rapid compliance and not just overzealous enforcement designed to cripple the industry based on climate bigotry,” the spokesperson said. “An erroneous report from a left-wing group financed by dark money does not change the facts. »

A current EPA employee, who declined to use his name for fear of retaliation, said there is a significant difference between the “compliance” touted by the Trump administration and the “enforcement” of punitive measures. The latter is a deterrent, the former largely is not, the employee said.

“They want us to do more of what they call compliance rather than enforcement: inspecting a company and saying, ‘Hey, maybe we’ll do these things better,’ and maybe giving them a slap on the wrist, but not imposing significant changes or fines,” the employee said.

The employee looked at Peer’s data and said it matched what he had seen anecdotally. They said several actions by the administration over the past year were to blame for the decline in law enforcement.

Trump’s political appointees to head the EPA are taking a closer look at investigators’ work. Law enforcement officers must escalate the matter up the chain of command if a company disagrees with the findings of an investigation. Similar approval is required if an EPA investigator wishes to require action beyond what the law requires. This is important, the employee said, because the law often does not require the steps necessary to fully correct a violation.

The requirements also caused a delay in reviewing files, the employee said.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has at times suspended its enforcement actions against the energy sector. A March 12 EPA memo said the enforcement measures would no longer “close any stage of energy production.”

At the same time, staffing in the law enforcement division has declined by as much as 30% in some areas, the staffer estimated, while the number of lawyers in the Justice Department’s environmental division has declined by about 50%.

The sum of these problems creates a “large chilling effect” on law enforcement, the staffer said. Investigators are afraid to take bold steps and are trying not to attract attention from politicians, they said.

“This means that the American people are at risk of health effects from air and water pollution, and businesses will feel encouraged to do more to cope,” the staffer said. “They know that the people at the EPA and the DoJ are pro-industry and are not going to enforce laws against them.”

The EPA spokesperson said the agency concluded more cases in the first year than the Biden administration did in its first year, and the agency would release those numbers soon.

However, the Peer report looked at major cases, not all cases. EPA handles minor applications as a civil administrative matter. This includes issues such as a mechanic shop illegally dumping small amounts of a pollutant into a waterway. Cases are investigated by EPA inspectors, who may issue a notice of violation. They attempt to reach a settlement in which the polluter must accept compensation and possibly a fine.

In its report, the Peer responds to this assertion by writing that “administrative enforcement is a good way to address violations that can be resolved quickly and are less likely to recur.”

“But they are not suitable for large, complex cases that warrant higher sanctions or substantial, long-term remedies needed both to correct violations and to prevent their recurrence,” the report said.

The attack on law enforcement is part of a broader effort to weaken the EPA, Whitehouse said. The administration has also attacked scientific research and protective regulations.

“Zeldin’s EPA behaves like a subsidiary of the oil and chemical industries and other large and powerful industries in the United States,” Whitehouse said. “It really does the work of these types of industries, and applying a broader view is a big part of that.”