New Mexico's refineries say the federal government is being blamed for some of the worst air pollution in the country.
A Louisiana chemical plant is being investigated for leaks of gas from storage tanks.
An Idaho rancher accused of polluting the wetlands.
Under President Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency took a tough approach to environmental enforcement by investigating businesses for pollution, dangerous waste and other violations. Meanwhile, the Trump administration says it wants to move its EPA mission from protecting air, water and land to something that “attempts to reduce the costs of purchasing a car, heating a home and running a business.”
As a result, the future of long-term research like these suddenly appears unstable. The new EPA memo shows the latest changes.
The EPA enforcement action will not “close the energy production phase,” according to a memo from March 12, unless there is an immediate health threat. It also cuts down the drive that President Biden has begun to address the disproportionately high levels of pollution facing poor communities across the country. “No consideration,” the memo states, “may be given to whether people affected by the potential violation constitute minority or low-income people.”
Those changes “allow agents to focus on their core mission and the power of a great American comeback,” according to EPA administrator Lee Zeldin.
David Ullman, who led the enforcement at the agency under the Biden administration, said the memo was equivalent to an agency that announced “this EPA is not liable for them if it breaks the law in the corporations, particularly the oil and gas sector.”
It “harms the community throughout the United States,” he said.
EPA spokesman Molly Vaseliou said he could not comment on the ongoing investigation or incident. The Justice Department, facing its own staff and budget cuts, declined to comment.
Conservatives argue that EPA regulations undermine economic growth and investment. “The bold deregulation measures at the EPA will unleash American energy and reduce costs for American families,” said Grover Norquist, the American president of tax reform, a tax organization. “The expensive web of government regulations has not been unraveled.”
Certainly, the enforcement cases filed by the Biden administration are still passing through court. On Wednesday, Japanese truck maker Hino Motors pleaded guilty to submitting false emission test data in violation of the Clean Air Act and agreed to pay more than $1.6 billion in fines resulting from the first investigation opened in 2019.
At the same time, a broader reconfiguration of the EPA's objectives is underway. The agency was established half a century ago during the Republican presidential administration of Richard M. Nixon and was obliged to protect the environment and public health.
Last week, the Trump administration said it would remove dozens of the country's most important environmental regulations, including limiting pollution from tailpipes and chimneys and protecting wetlands.
In a video posted on social media site X, Zeldin said his agency's mission is to “reduce the costs of purchasing a car, heating the home and running a business.”
Project 2025 is a blueprint for overhauling the federal government, produced by the Heritage Foundation and written by many who work in the Trump administration, seeking to eliminate the EPA office that will carry out enforcement and compliance work. Zeldin also said he intends to cut agency spending by 65% and eliminate the scientific research department.
Some on-site testing, which form a critical part of the enforcement investigation, have already been delayed or stopped because two people who spoke on condition of anonymity are allowed to speak publicly. They said investigations related to air pollution are particularly vulnerable.
There was already one important reversal. This month, the Trump administration stopped a federal lawsuit against performance elastomers from Denka, a chemical maker accused of releasing high levels of carcinogenic substances from its Louisiana factory.
The Biden administration filed a lawsuit after regulators determined that chloroprene emissions used to make synthetic rubber contributed to health concerns in areas along the Mississippi River, and then found some of the highest cancer risks in the United States.
Speaking to reporters this month, “I honestly wonder if the mile factor will give us more burning rivers,” William K. Reilly, EPA administrator under President George HW Bush. He was referring to the polluted Cuyahoga River fires in Ohio in the late 1960s, which helped to promote environmental awareness.
He also said the EPA continues to be committed to addressing imminent health threats, but risks from contamination tend to regenerate over longer periods in the form of cancer, birth defects, or increased long-term respiratory and heart harm, said Anne E. Carlson, professor of environmental law at the UCLA School of Law.
“The memorandum is essentially a wink, a wink on the benefits of coal and oil, and it could pollute them with something that might be close to immunity,” she said.
That would be a tough turnaround after the Biden administration worked to build agency enforcement work. In 2024, the EPA ended civil lawsuits of 1,851 people and collected $1.7 billion in administrative and judicial punishment, the highest level since 2017. That same year, 121 criminal defendants were charged.
The agency also prioritized greenhouse gas emissions, the toxic “eternal chemical” known as PFA, and the disposal of coal ash, the burning material for coal.
The new Trump EPA will focus on disposing of coal ash and pull back from emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from oil and gas facilities, a recent memo said.
Other Biden-era executive settlements include those accused of causing benzene, which causes the worst concentrations of cancer in the country, including those that included the decades-old HF Sinclair refinery in Artesia, New Mexico.
The EPA, together with the Justice Department and New Mexico, proposed a $35 million settlement on the last day of the Biden administration as part of an effort to protect people living in Artesia, a city of 13,000 with a long history of pollution. HF Sinclair, which processes around 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day at Artesia, had to invest in revising refineries that would reduce the emissions of dangerous air pollutants.
So far, the Trump administration has not moved to finalise the settlement.
In a statement, the Texas-based operator said it has already invested in amendments and surveillance to address the allegations.
The New Mexico Department of Environmental Quality added that “timing is unknown due to changes in management at the federal level,” and said it supports moving forward with the settlement “as quickly as possible.”
Research that has just begun faces even greater uncertainty. This is because the agency can afford not to follow up with the violation.
In March 2023, EPA officials discovered alleged leaks and other pollution law violations during inspections at refineries and chemical factories run by Dutch oil and gas giant Shell.
According to a notice issued by the EPA and obtained by the Environmental Integrity Project, one chemical storage tank found “a crack/opening with severe holes throughout the fixed roof and detectable discharge.”
The EPA declined to say whether the investigation is continuing. Shell declined to comment.
Some cases may be shaped by wider variations.
In 2021, EPA inspectors discovered that a cattle ranch in Bruneau, Idaho had destroyed protected wetlands by building road crossings and mining sand and gravel from local rivers. The agency sued, claiming it was a violently contested rule adopted by the Obama administration, known in particular as “US Water.”
A federal judge dismissed the original case after a 2023 Supreme Court ruling reduced the federal government's power to regulate smaller waters. President Biden's EPA filed an amendment lawsuit in September.
Last week, the EPA said it would rewrite the rules to reduce developer permission costs.
Ivan London is a lawyer for the Sanzhou Legal Foundation, who helps protect ranchers in the case, and said he hopes that client debates will win regardless of the new EPA rules. The rancher argues that the EPA has no authority to regulate the wetlands in question.
Still, he said the current Trump administration certainly has more sides with the accused, which could have an impact on the case. “I've been surprised before, and I'm sure I'll be surprised again,” he said.
