Trump Administration all but abandons environmental enforcement actions
The Trump Administration has virtually stopped enforcing the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act or the Superfund law, according to an independent analysis of Environmental Protection Agency enforcement actions in the first full year of the second Trump Administration.
The report, by Public Employees for Enviromental Responsibility (PEER). says the EPA undertook only 15 enforcement actions from Jan. 21, 2025 to Jan. 20, 2026, compared to 75 in the first year of President Donald Trump’s first term and 71 in the first full year of President Joe Biden’s term.
The EPA only lodged a single Clean Air Act consent decree, four Clean Water Act actions and seven Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) settlements for the entire year, the report says. CERCLA is the statute that authorizes the EPA to go after corporations in court to recover Superfund site cleanup costs.
PEER claims that according to EPA’s own database, some 2,374 sources of air pollution have not been evaluated for full compliance with the Clean Air Act in the last five years, with more than 400 sources having serious violations that EPA considers “high priority” for enforcement.
Nearly 900 sources have exceeded their allowable wastewater discharge limits 50 or more times over the past two years, leaving half of U.S. lakes, rivers and streams too dirty for recreational use, the report says.
“As enforcement recedes, so will the level playing field that protects law-abiding businesses that work hard to stay in compliance from unscruplous competitors,” the reportsays. Read the report HERE.
PEER is a nonprofit organization of local, state, and national government natural resource and environmental professionals. PEER serves as a resource to potential government whistleblowers, allowing them to anonymously expose environmental wrongdoings and assisting them in redressing agency retaliation.
Jodine Mayberry for the Clearinghouse
PHOTO:
