Monday, May 10, 2021
The Biden Administration’s enforcement priorities began to take shape last week, as the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement arm issued a pair of memoranda encouraging the use of certain tools in civil enforcement and settlements and for prioritizing enforcement efforts in environmental justice communities. Lawrence E. Starfield, a senior career EPA official currently serving as Acting Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), issued both memoranda. The memos demonstrate a concrete shift in EPA’s enforcement philosophy doubling down on Next Generation or “NextGen” compliance tools and Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs), and focusing on environmental justice under the new administration. The specific ways in which EPA enforcement staff will carry out these policies are not yet known and will develop over time, but it is important for regulated entities to be aware of,
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On April 30, 2021, the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (“OECA”) of Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued new internal guidance (the “Memorandum”) outlining actions intended to strengthen enforcement and advance the protection of overburdened communities meaning minority, low-income, tribal, or indigenous populations or geographic locations in the United States that potentially experience disproportionate environmental harms and risks.
The Memorandum comes on the heels of an announcement by Administrator Regan that reaffirmed the Biden administration’s commitment to environmental justice (“EJ”) enforcement matters and set out initial steps EPA will take to advance its EJ goals. Among them was to “[s]trengthen enforcement of violations of cornerstone environmental statutes and civil rights laws in communities overburdened by pollution.” OECA’s Memorandum outlines a plan to d