Last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released
its annual enforcement results for the 2018 fiscal year (ranging
from October 1, 2017, to September 30, 2018). The report, prepared by EPA's
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), highlights
the results of the agency's civil and criminal enforcement of
the nation's federal environmental laws over the past year. The
2018 results mark the first full fiscal year of enforcement
results, including inspections and compliance evaluations, under
the Trump administration. A statement in the report from Susan Bodine, the
Assistant Administrator for OECA, summarizes EPA's enforcement
priorities, explaining "[i]n fiscal year 2018, we continued
our focus on expediting site cleanup, deterring noncompliance, and
returning facilities to compliance with the law, while respecting
the cooperative federalism structure of our nation's
environmental laws."
