The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scored both wins and losses in its enforcement of environmental laws for 2023, stepping up fines for polluters and on-site inspections but cleaning up fewer pollutants than it has in a decade, according to the agency’s annual enforcement and compliance report.
The EPA results show that the Biden administration is serious about rebuilding EPA’s environmental enforcement and compliance programs, but the enforcement program has become “so degraded that it will take years of sustained funding and political support to turn it around,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and a former senior enforcement attorney at EPA. “I would call this a ‘fragile’ recovery,” he said.