The new policy comes as the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility on Thursday issued a report saying that there has been a “collapse” of civil enforcement of environmental laws in Trump’s first year back in office.
DOJ lodged consent decrees in 75 cases referred by EPA in 2017 and early 2018, the first year of Trump’s first term, and 71 in Biden’s first year. In the first year of Trump’s second term, that has plummeted to just 15, PEER said. That drop covers reductions under the Clean Air Act, for which the administration has lodged just one decree, as well as the Clean Water Act and the Superfund law.
