The EPA’s use of environmentally beneficial projects as a settlement tool has shot back up after four years of sharp decline, an agency official said Monday.
That dropoff was driven by a Trump-era decision to discourage most supplemental environmental projects (SEPs), according to Rosemarie Kelley, director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Civil Enforcement. As a result, only 0.7% of of the EPA’s settlements in fiscal 2021 included a SEP, and just 0.2% in fiscal 2022.
The Biden administration undid the Trump policy in May, and in fiscal 2023, 6.4% of the EPA’s settlements included a SEP—close to the ...
Learn more about Bloomberg Law or Log In to keep reading:
Learn About Bloomberg Law
AI-powered legal analytics, workflow tools and premium legal & business news.
Already a subscriber?
Log in to keep reading or access research tools.