Investigations into the Environmental Protection Agency seem to be increasingly at risk

A refinery in New Mexico has been accused by the federal government of some of the worst air pollution in the country.

A chemical factory is investigated in Louisiana to leak gas from storage tanks.

Idahu Mazrabi accused of polluting wetlands.

During the era of President Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency pursued a difficult approach in environmental enforcement by investigating companies for pollution, dangerous waste and other violations. On the other hand, the Trump administration said it wants to transform the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency from air protection, water and land One seeks “Reducing the cost of buying a car, heating the house and managing business.”

As a result, the future of long investigations like this suddenly appears unstable. The new EPA sets the latest changes.

The March 12 note says that the enforcement of the Environmental Protection Agency “will not” close any stage of energy production “, unless there is an imminent health threat. It also limits the leadership campaign that President Biden began to address high levels inappropriately from pollution facing poor societies at the country level. Low. “

Lee Zealin, director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said these changes will allow the agency to better focus on its basic mission and run the return of America’s great.

David German, who led the agency’s enforcement under the Biden Administration, said that the memo was up to the agency declaring that “if companies, especially in the oil and gas sector, divide the law, the Environmental Protection Agency does not intend to hold it accountable.”

He said that this would “put societies throughout the United States in the path of harm,” in the words of the poorest areas or minorities that often suffer from the worst pollution.

Molly Vasilio, a spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency, said he could not comment on investigations or ongoing cases. The Ministry of Justice, which faced its employees and reducing the budget, refused to comment.

Conservatives have argued that the Environmental Protection Agency regulations have affected economic growth and investment. “The bold measures of the Labor Party in the Environmental Protection Agency will launch US energy and reduce the costs of American families,” said Goworm Nurkoyst, President of the American for tax reform, and the anti -tax organization. “The government’s excessive network in the organization is not separated.”

Certainly, the enforcement cases provided by the Biden administration are still outperforming the courts. On Wednesday, the Japanese truck manufacturer Hino Motors acknowledged the provision of wrong emissions testing in violation of the clean air law and agreed to pay more than $ 1.6 billion from the first time that opened in California in 2019.

At the same time, a wider reformulation is being reformulated for the purpose of the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency was established half a century ago, during the Republican Presidential Administration of Richard M. Nixon, with an authorization to protect the environment and public health.

Last week, the Trump administration He said it will cancel Dozens of the most important environmental regulations in the country, including the boundaries on the pollution of the mill and Smokestacks, and the protection of wetlands.

In a video posted on X, the social networking site, Mr. Zeldin said that the mission of his agency was now “reducing the cost of buying a car, heating a house and operating a business.”

Project 2025, a plan for reforming the federal government produced by the Heritage Foundation and written by many of those working in the Trump administration, exceeding, in an effort to eliminate the EPA office, which carries out work and compliance. Mr. Zeldin also said he intends to do so Reducing the agency’s spending 65 percent and Eliminate the arm of scientific research.

Some site inspections, which are a vital part of enforcement investigations, are already delayed or suspended, according to two people who spoke provided that his identity is not disclosed because they are not authorized to speak publicly. They said that investigations related to air pollution were especially weak.

There was already an important reflection. This month, the Trump administration I dropped a federal lawsuit against Denka Performance Elastomer, a chemical manufacturer accused of launching high levels of potential carcinogenic material from its factory in Louisiana.

The Biden administration filed the lawsuit after the organizers decided that chloroprene emissions, which were used to make artificial rubber, were contributing to health concerns in an area along the Mississippi River with some of the highest risk of cancer in the United States.

William K. said. Riley, director of the Environmental Protection Agency during the era of President George Ho W. Bush, speaking with the correspondents this month: “I wonder frankly if the quarrels will give us more rivers.” It was referring to a fire on the contaminated Cuyahoga River in Ohio in the late 1960s, which helped stimulate environmental awareness.

Anne Carlson, professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, while the Environmental Protection Agency said it has been committed to addressing imminent health threats, the risks of pollution tend to play over longer periods of time, in the form of increased cancer rates, birth defects, respiratory harm and long -term heart.

She said: “The memo is mainly a wink, a wink on the interests of coal and oil that they can pollute, which may be close to impunity.”

This will be a flagrant reflection after the Biden administration has worked to build the agency’s enforcement work. In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded 1851 civil cases and raised $ 1.7 billion of administrative and judicial penalties, Both are the highest levels since 2017. In the same year, 121 criminal defendants were accused.

The agency also gave the priority of greenhouse gas emissions to the police, and toxic “chemicals” known as PFAs, as well as the disposal of coal ash and toxic substances that were left from burning charcoal.

The recent memo said that the new Trump Trump will retreat from focusing on getting rid of the ash of coal, and from methane emissions, a strong greenhouse gas, from oil and gas facilities.

Awaits the completion of other Biden eradication settlements, including one that includes the decades -lasia HF Singlair Refinery in Artesia, NM, accused of causing some of the worst cancer gasoline concentrations in the country.

The Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Ministry of Justice and the New Mexico state, suggested a $ 35 million settlement in the last days of the Biden administration as part of an attempt to protect people living in Artsia, a city of 13,000 people with a long history of pollution. It was also required of HF Singlair, which treats about 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day in Artesia, investing in refinery reforms that reduce dangerous air pollutants emissions.

To date, the Trump administration has not moved to the completion of this settlement.

In a statement, the Texas -based operator said he has already invested in reforms and monitoring to address these allegations.

The Ministry of Environmental Quality in New Mexico said it has supported the progress of the settlement “urgently as possible,” adding that “due to the change in management at the federal level, the timing is not clear.”

The investigations that have just started to move away in the face of greater uncertainty, because the agency has a deadline not to follow the violations.

In March 2023, Environmental Protection officials discovered leaks and other alleged violations of pollution laws during inspection at the refinery and chemicals that operate in NORCO, Los Angeles, by Shell, the Dutch oil and gas giant.

According to a later released notification by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Environmental Integrity Project, a group of quality control, was found, one chemical storage tank was found with “severe composition via the entire fixed ceiling, as well as cracks/openings with discovered emissions.”

The Environmental Protection Agency refused to say if the investigations were continuing. Shell refused to comment.

Some cases may be formed through broader changes.

In 2021, inspectors of the Environmental Protection Agency found signs that the livestock farm in Bruneo, Idaho, walked wet lands protected by building roads, sand and gravel from a local river. A lawsuit was filed against the agency, claiming violations of the clean water law, especially a disputed base of bitterness adopted by the Obama administration known as “US Water”, which extended the current federal protection to smaller surfaces of water such as rivers, waterways and wetlands.

A federal judge rejected the original case after a 2023 Supreme Court ruling The federal government has reduced the regulation of smaller surfaces of water. EPA President Biden filed a modified lawsuit in September.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency said it would rewrite the base to reduce the costs of allowing developers.

Evan London, a lawyer at the United States Foundation for Mountains, which helps in defending livestock breeders in the case, said he expected the arguments of his customers to prevail regardless of the new rules for the Environmental Protection Agency. Livestock breeders argue that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to regulate the wetlands concerned.

However, the current Trump administration is certainly more with the defendants, and this may affect the case. He said, “I was surprised before, and I am sure I would be surprised again.”