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2020 has so far been defined almost entirely by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the public health crisis has affected environment, health, and safety (EHS) enforcement along with everything else. Let’s take a look at what’s been happening with enforcement at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), from the pandemic’s effect on policy to some recently […]
Between 2007 and 2018, every major measure of the EPA’s enforcement and compliance activities declined, states the Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) in a report.
In a September 2019 memo, the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) revised its 2003 guidance for Expedited Settlement Agreements (ESAs) applicable to the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) program.
The EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) has finalized a policy document titled Enforcing Effective Partnerships Between the EPA and the States in Civil Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Work. The intent of the document is to delineate to the extent possible how the EPA and states that are authorized to implement and enforce […]
The EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) has issued a draft document on enhancing planning and communication between the Agency and the states in civil enforcement and compliance assurance.
Since President Donald Trump occupied the White House, the EPA has been methodically revising its approach to enforcement. One important policy change occurred in summer 2018 when the Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) announced that the National Enforcement Initiatives (NEI) program, the OECA’s triannual prioritization of the country’s top noncompliance problems, would […]
Second to the rollback or potential rollback of major air, water, and vehicle regulations issued by the Obama EPA, new Democratic leaders in the House seem most alarmed by what they perceive to be the current EPA’s changed stance on enforcement.
Using data from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a liberal environmental group, reported that the EPA’s criminal enforcement division under President Donald Trump is reaching new lows in the number of referrals for prosecution it makes to the DOJ.
Two EPA offices have issued memos revising and/or clarifying Agency policies on collecting information from the regulated community.
The EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) has stepped away from an earlier policy that created an expectation that in settlements with violators of environmental law and regulation, Agency case teams are expected to make use of “innovative enforcement” tools. The Agency now states that while such tools have proven useful, case teams […]