Businesses, Be Aware: Environmental Justice Enforcement Is Serious

Washington, D.C. (May 12, 2021) - In late April 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) issued two memoranda that shed light on how the agency will implement President Biden's directives on environmental justice in environmental enforcement actions. The memoranda describe a significant shift in EPA's enforcement focus, moving beyond traditional actions against noncompliance to a new emphasis on mitigating harm and delivering benefits to communities affected by environmental non-compliance, including reparation for past harm. Further, EPA's new approach calls on enforcement staff to increase inspections, seek restitution for victims of environmental crimes, encourage greater public access to compliance data, and, where necessary, overstep state regulators. These new enforcement directives are immediately effective and, in some cases, contradict current Department of Justice regulations on civil judicial