On January 9, 2018, EPA released the
pre-publication copy of its annual civil monetary penalty
adjustment. The final rule is scheduled to be published in
the Federal Register on January 10, 2018. The adjustments are
mandated by 2015 revisions to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation
Adjustment Act, which requires federal agencies to make annual
inflation adjustments to federal statutory civil penalty
amounts. In the past, EPA only adjusted penalty levels for
inflation once every several years. Beginning in 2017,
however, EPA and other federal agencies must adjust their penalty
amounts every year.
The annual inflation adjustments are based on a cost-of-living
multiplier determined by changes to the Consumer Price Index.
The changes impact all of the federal environmental statutes and
increase the per-day, per-violation maximum civil penalties that
may be assessed in federal enforcement actions. For
example, civil penalties under the Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean
