Biden EPA makes first-ever cli­mate change arrest

The Biden admin­is­tra­tion has made a prece­dent-set­ting arrest relat­ed to anti-cli­mate change activ­i­ties this fis­cal year, high­light­ed in a new report that shows a ramped-up enforce­ment effort against envi­ron­men­tal offens­es.

On Thurs­day, the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA) issued a final report on enforce­ment efforts under Pres­i­dent Biden, which detailed how cli­mate-relat­ed penal­ties were enforced this fis­cal year.

The EPA worked to imple­ment the Amer­i­can Inno­va­tion and Man­u­fac­tur­ing (AIM) Act, which requires the agency to reduce hydro­flu­o­ro­car­bons, a syn­thet­ic com­pound com­mon­ly used for refrig­er­a­tion or air con­di­tion­ing, by 85% by 2036.

The AIM Act led to the arrest of Michael Hart, of San Diego, in March on charges relat­ed to “smug­gling potent green­house gas­es,” high­light­ed in the EPA report. The charges marked the first-ever green­house gas-relat­ed arrest issued under the AIM Act, but accord­ing to an EPA press release from ear­li­er this year, “it will not be the last.”

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Addi­tion­al­ly, the EPA report­ed issu­ing $1.7 bil­lion in admin­is­tra­tive and judi­cial penal­ties, the high­est lev­el since 2017.

The agency’s envi­ron­men­tal enforce­ment efforts also saw 1,851 civ­il cas­es con­clud­ed, 121 crim­i­nal defen­dants charged, and it issued more than 225 mil­lion pounds of “pol­lu­tion reduc­tions” in “over­bur­dened com­mu­ni­ties,” accord­ing to the report. As of the end of 2024, there are about 480 open crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions on envi­ron­men­tal pro­grams.

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The results reflect a 3.4% increase in civ­il cas­es and a 17.6% increase in crim­i­nal charges com­pared to 2023, The Asso­ci­at­ed Press report­ed.

In the FY 2024 report, the EPA also not­ed that col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts on the “imple­men­ta­tion of EPA’s nation­al pri­or­i­ties” led to a “12% increase in crim­i­nal leads opened because of refer­rals from EPA Head­quar­ters and region­al offices.”

“In Fis­cal Year 2024, EPA’s enforce­ment and com­pli­ance assur­ance pro­gram pro­duced its strongest results since 2017, focus­ing on efforts to com­bat cli­mate change and tack­ling some of the nation’s most sig­nif­i­cant envi­ron­men­tal threats to our shared air, water and land,” David M. Uhlmann, assis­tant admin­is­tra­tor for EPA’s Office of Enforce­ment and Com­pli­ance Assur­ance, said in a state­ment. “The progress made under the Biden-Har­ris Admin­is­tra­tion has sent a clear sig­nal that pol­luters will be held account­able and that pro­tect­ing com­mu­ni­ties from harm is a top pri­or­i­ty.”

The agency zeroed in on six areas of pri­or­i­ty for FY 2024 as part of their Nation­al Enforce­ment and Com­pli­ance Ini­tia­tive: mit­i­gat­ing cli­mate change, expo­sure to PFAS, work­ing against com­mu­ni­ties from coal ash con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, reduc­ing air tox­i­cs in over­bur­dened com­mu­ni­ties, increas­ing com­pli­ance with drink­ing water stan­dards and chem­i­cal acci­dent risk reduc­tion.

Biden has made issu­ing green ener­gy projects a focus of his admin­is­tra­tion, most recent­ly hand­ing out bil­lions of dol­lars to fund cli­mate-relat­ed projects in the remain­ing months of his term before Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump steps into office.