EPA to steer environmental enforcement officers away from energy companies

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated this week that it will steer its environmental enforcement officers away from energy companies. 

The EPA can pursue civil or criminal cases against polluters.

In 2023, the Biden administration said it would focus its environmental enforcement officers on companies that violate laws related to climate change, toxic “forever chemicals” and carcinogenic coal waste.

In a press release on Wednesday, President Trump’s EPA said it will revise environmental law enforcement guidelines in a way that does not “shut down energy production.”

The Trump administration also said it would reject a Biden-era focus on environmental justice — which seeks to prioritize communities with disproportionately high pollution levels and few resources, including communities of color. 

“The Biden-Harris Administration paired burdensome, legally questionable regulations with unpredictable but punitive enforcement aimed at shutting down American energy and manufacturing and promoting so-called ‘environmental justice,’” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. 

“By re-aligning enforcement with the law instead of activist goals, we can help deliver economic prosperity and energy security while ensuring compliance with sound regulations,” he added. 

The EPA said in its press release that it would refocus efforts on “the most pressing health and safety issues.” It did not say what those were. 

The announcement came in conjunction with additional announcements from the EPA that it wanted to reverse a broad suite of regulations that seek to limit climate change and pollution from power plants and cars.