Environmental Pollution Enforcement Spiked in Biden’s Final Year

The EPA’s enforcement program last year delivered its strongest results in seven years, the agency said in a yearly report issued Thursday.

The findings come as David Uhlmann is wrapping up his tenure as head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement team. In that time, he has sharply ramped up a division whose activities had tailed off during President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration—but now environmentalists fear strict adherence to the law may sag again during his second term.

The enforcement division said in fiscal 2024 it concluded 1,851 civil cases and collected $1.7 billion in administrative and judicial penalties—both the ...