Top Environment Enforcement Cop Aims to Meet the Climate Moment

The EPA is going to steer dramatically more resources toward cracking down on methane emissions and the illegal importation of banned refrigerants, according to the agency’s top law enforcer.

The effort is part of a bid to make climate change the Environmental Protection Agency’s signature enforcement priority. Included in the plan are more inspections, more administrative penalty actions, more referrals to the Justice Department, and more requests that the department bring criminal cases against violators, David Uhlmann, head of the agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said in an interview.

“If we didn’t call climate our top national enforcement ...