The Trump administration has all but stopped enforcing environmental laws

Protecting the nation from polluters is a core function of the Environmental Protection Agency. But in the last few months, federal enforcement of major violations of environmental laws appears to have ground to a halt. A Grist review of data from the Department of Justice and EPA found that the Trump administration has not filed any new cases against major polluters in its first three months. Similarly, the number of minor civil and criminal enforcement cases has also significantly declined since President Donald Trump took office on January 20.

The hands-off approach to environmental enforcement comes amid Trump’s repeated pledges to go easier on polluters. His administration has begun rolling back dozens of regulations; granting exemptions from federal air quality requirements to coal plants; and rewriting pollution standards for cars and trucks. Federal environmental enforcement declined during Trump’s first term, but the decrease during the first three months of his second term has been more drastic.

“The future is grim for environmental protection,” said Gary Jonesi, a former top EPA enforcement attorney who now runs the nonprofit CREEDemocracy, which promotes clean energy and democracy globally. “The risk will be most felt in overburdened communities, but this will hurt red and blue districts alike,” he added. “If the EPA cop is not on the beat, then people are going to be harmed.”

Environmental enforcement varies from state to state. In some cases, state agencies take the lead on enforcing environmental laws. In other cases, the EPA does. The federal agency typically uncovers violations through routine inspections or tips. If the offense is minor, the EPA handles it as a civil administrative case. The polluter is issued a notice of violation, and most often a settlement is reached in which the two sides agree to a remedy and potentially a fine.

However, when the agency uncovers major violations such as chemical discharge in drinking water, poorer air quality from fracking pollution, and large chemical spills like the East Palestine catastrophe, it refers the cases to the DOJ. As the chief litigator for federal agencies, the DOJ files cases against polluters.

A review of publicly available data and press releases suggests the DOJ has not initiated any new major cases since Trump took office. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been filing or closing nearly 100 fewer civil cases per month on average than the Biden administration during its last fiscal year, which ended in October. It’s also initiating or closing about 200 fewer cases per month than the first Trump administration did during the same time period in 2017. These trends were confirmed by five current and former enforcement officials and an analysis of publicly available data.

The Biden administration averaged 288 cases per month during the last fiscal year — about 100 per month more than the Trump administration so far. During its first three months, the administration has filed or closed at least 567 cases or an average of 189 per month, records show.

But that figure may be distorted in favor of Trump by civil cases that were started, investigated, and negotiated under Biden but have only recently been finalized. For example, the EPA cited the SilverEdge Cooperative trucking supply company in Iowa for a minor Clean Air Act violation in June 2024. A settlement of $5,000 was reached, though it is unclear when, and the case was finalized on April 14.

The Trump administration has also closed some larger cases. The Biden EPA, DOJ, and Hino Motors, a Toyota subsidiary, reached a $1.6 billion settlement on January 15 after the automaker was accused of lying about emissions controls on its engines. A federal court entered the sentence on March 19.

A DOJ spokesperson told Grist the department had no comment, and an EPA spokesperson said in an email that the administration is “committed to enforcing all aspects of the law from inspection to informal and formal administrative and judicial actions.” When asked to provide evidence of new judicial cases filed by the Trump administration, the EPA spokesperson sent cases opened, investigated, and litigated under Biden but closed under Trump, including the Hino Motors case. When asked to provide new cases filed under Trump, the spokesperson did not respond.

Two current EPA enforcement staffers told Grist they were informed “through the chain of command” that there would be a higher bar for initiating cases against major polluters — a decision that would now go through the agency’s political appointees. They cited a March 12 EPA memo noting that enforcement actions will no longer “shut down any stage of energy production” as effectively granting energy companies a license to pollute because they are not being prosecuted for breaking environmental laws.

Newly appointed EPA officials are reviewing every major case in progress, the current EPA staffers said. The agency typically handles hundreds of cases at any given point. All of them were on hold as of early April, though some have since begun to advance through the review process. Polluters accused of violations by the EPA were also using the administration change as leverage in negotiations with EPA enforcement, and some major polluters were visiting political appointees in an effort to scuttle cases, one official said.

Grist’s analysis looked for civil administrative, criminal, and major civil cases listed in six public databases for the first three months of the new administration, as well as press releases on the EPA and DOJ website. It compared the new administration’s monthly average to the Biden administration’s monthly average during fiscal year 2024, as well as the first Trump administration’s first three months. Grist assessed enforcement trends by fiscal year to align with how federal agencies report data.

The review may not include every case because enforcement details aren’t always promptly entered into public databases, two former top EPA enforcement officials who reviewed the data said. But they added that the vast majority of cases should be accounted for in each database, and the findings broadly provide an accurate picture that tracks with their observations.

“Things are definitely slower,” a current enforcement employee said. “Even the settlements happening now were mostly done under Biden, they just needed to get them over the finish line.”

The difference raises questions about the politicization of enforcement, said David Uhlmann, a Biden appointee who ran the EPA’s enforcement office from 2022 to 2024.

“It’s critically important to keep politics out of enforcement,” he added. “Enforcement should be about upholding the rule of law and protecting communities from harmful pollution.”

The slowdown does not appear to be related to the administration’s transition. The EPA under the first Trump administration was far more active, initiating or completing at least 1,179 civil cases during the same time period in early 2017 or about 200 more per month than the current administration.

Uhlmann said career enforcement officials were able to convince political appointees during the first Trump administration that it wasn’t appropriate to pause or reduce enforcement cases across the board. But as the first Trump administration became more hostile toward career staff, an exodus occurred and enforcement steadily slowed, hitting a low point in fiscal year 2020. That figure increased steadily during the Biden administration.

“It’s only been three months, but the EPA has taken such a hard turn away from protecting public health and the environment,” Uhlmann said. “It’s breathtaking and sad.”

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