President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to immediately reverse President Biden's new ban on offshore drilling along most of the U.S. coastline, but he faces major roadblocks under a 70-year, irrevocable law.
Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump vowed that, if elected, he would expand oil and gas drilling in an effort to bolster American-made energy.
However, Biden issued an 11th-hour executive order Monday morning to forestall such actions exactly two weeks before his term ends, announcing a permanent stop to most new oil and gas drilling across U.S. coastal and offshore waters in an area that spans about 625 million acres.
"It's ridiculous. I'll unban it immediately," Trump said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" on Monday. "What's he doing?"
"We can't let that happen to our country," Trump added. "It's really our greatest economic asset."
The executive order, issued under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), seeks to block future oil and natural gas leasing along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea.
Trump said that he "has the right" to reverse such an action, but given that Biden issued the order under a 1953 law that allows the president to enact bans on oil and gas development, he would not be able to simply reverse it.
In 2019, during Trump's first term, a federal judge ruled that OCSLA does not permit presidents to overturn bans established by previous administrations. This means Trump would need congressional approval to reverse Biden's decision.
Biden said that his decision stemmed from his efforts to curb climate change – one of dozens of moves from the Democratic president's green energy agenda.
"My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs," Biden said in a statement. "It is not worth the risks. As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren."
Trump's spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, also issued a statement criticizing Biden's order.
"This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill," Leavitt said.
Ukraine has received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S., energy company officials confirmed this week— a positive development for Kyiv as it moves to ramp up its purchases of U.S. supplies and protect against broader supply concerns in the region.
Ukraine’s private energy company, DTEK, confirmed it has received some 100 million cubic meters of U.S. LNG in the shipment, which the U.S. shipped to an LNG regasification terminal in Greece.
The DTEK contract is the first significant LNG contract to be struck between Ukraine and the U.S. and will allow Ukraine to purchase an "unspecificed" amount of LNG from Venture Global through 2026. The companies also signed a separate 20-year agreement, in keeping with traditional longer-term LNG supply contracts.
The news comes just hours before Russian gas giant, Gazprom, is slated to halt all piped gas deliveries shipped through Ukrainian pipelines to other European countries, following the expiration of its five-year contract.
Even after the abrupt throttling of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, the EU depends on piped Russian gas for roughly 5% of its total gas imports— sparking fresh fears as to how the bloc might cope in the event of a supply emergency or colder-than-expected winter.
In the interim, Ukrainian officials said, they hope the additional U.S. supplies can help fill in the gap and help ease any near-term supply crises in the EU.
"Cargoes like this are not only providing the region with a flexible and secure source of power, but are further eroding Russia’s influence over our energy system," DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko said in a statement.
The Biden administration is attempting to implement last-minute restrictions on oil and gas drilling in the west just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
On Monday, the Department of the Interior announced plans to pursue a 20-year ban on oil and gas leases in 264,000 acres of Nevada's Ruby Mountains.
The administration submitted an application to withdraw the acreage from any potential leasing, which initiated a two-year ban on new mineral leases in the area during the approval process. The proposal now heads into a 90-day public comment period, which will fall under the Trump administration.
"The Ruby Mountains are an iconic landscape with exceptional recreation opportunities and valuable fish and wildlife habitat worth preserving for the future," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. "Today’s action honors the voices of Tribal communities and conservation and sportsmen’s groups and marks another important step to protect a treasured landscape."
During Trump's first administration, the Forest Service conducted a study to determine whether 54,000 acres could be leased for oil and gas drilling in the Ruby Mountains.
The proposal was eventually rejected in 2019 after the public comment period saw "thousands of comments from the local area, the state of Nevada, and from across the nation" opposing the idea, according to William Dunkelberger, the forest supervisor who signed the decision.
Jenna Padilla, the geologist for the Humboldt-Toiyabe Ruby Mountains ranger district at the time, said that geological surveys "show there is low to no potential for oil" in the region, the LA Times reported in 2018.
It is unclear whether the Trump administration will consider potential leases in the region, but such actions could face roadblocks following the Biden administration's new proposal.
President Biden is increasing the United States' emissions reduction goal for the next decade, but the green energy push could be hindered by the incoming administration under President-elect Trump.
In 2021, Biden set a climate target for the U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50-52% from 2005 levels by 2030.
However, under the Paris climate agreement, which the U.S. is currently enrolled in, each country is required to submit their contribution to reducing global emissions every five years under the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
In his final contribution to the global climate change agreement under the NDC, Biden on Thursday set a new goal to reduce even more emissions within the next decade – but Trump has suggested initiating a potential withdrawal from the global climate treaty.
During his campaign, Trump told Politico that he would be in favor of withdrawing from the treaty when he assumes office, which could impact the new climate goal.
The Paris climate agreement was established at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in 2015 as a legally binding treaty among nearly 195 parties committed to international cooperation on climate change.
The U.S. first entered into the agreement under former President Barack Obama in 2016, but was withdrawn under Trump in 2020.
If Trump chooses to withdraw from the agreement a second time, it could occur at a faster pace than the first.
Trump also has the option to submit the treaty to the Senate for advice and consent, which would require a two-thirds vote for the U.S. to rejoin the climate agreement – creating a potential hurdle for future administrations seeking to reenter the accord.
The Biden administration has made tightening efficiency standards for household appliances a target as he's built out his climate agenda over the past four years.
"Making common household appliances more efficient is one of the most effective ways to slash energy costs and cut harmful carbon emissions," Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who has spearheaded efforts to push households to adopt green energy alternatives, said in a statement.
However, energy experts and manufacturers have warned that the Biden administration's regulations would lead to more expensive household appliances that are far less effective than current models.
"What these mandates – what these standards do is enforce a level of efficiency that doesn't make sense," said Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "And they compromise product quality. We've already seen this to an extent with the cost of clothes washer standards."
The Department of Energy (DOE) introduced a final rule in February imposing stricter energy standards for residential clothes washers (RCWs), such as washing machines and clothes dryers.
Under the regulations, certain less-efficient models of washers and dryers would be barred from being sold, according to DOE.
The department projected that the energy standards would collectively save American households $2.2 billion per year on utility bills while reducing nearly 71 million metric tons of "dangerous carbon dioxide emissions" over the next three decades.
However, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers argued that DOE's washing machine regulations "would have a disproportionate, negative impact on low-income households" by eliminating cheaper appliances from the market.
"Despite misleading claims to the contrary, these proposals are intended for nothing more than promoting innovation and keeping money in the pockets of Americans everywhere without sacrificing the reliability and performance that consumers expect and rely on," a spokesperson for the Department of Energy told Fox News Digital. "As evidenced in the Department’s testing and analysis, the proposed standards would not reduce product performance or negatively impact cleaning ability or cycle time."
In 2023, the EPA finalized a rule to accelerate a transition to more advanced refrigeration and cooling technologies that don't use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and proposed a second rule to manage HFCs in existing products. HFCs are chemicals common in household appliances, such as refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning units.
The rule, set to go into effect in 2025, aims to phase out HFCs to achieve an 85% reduction by 2036.
But manufacturers reportedly privately predicted that the regulation would increase prices up to 20%, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
In February 2023, the DOE issued a proposal to target gas-powered stovetops, which was set to take effect in 2027 and affect 50% of current gas stove models.
Under the 2023 proposal, DOE would have banned the future sale of gas stoves that consume more than 1,204 thousand kBtu per year.
Restaurant owners have fumed over potential gas stove ban regulations.
"The majority of New York City restaurants use gas. It’s the most common stove in a high-volume kitchen," Peter Petti, executive chef at Upper East Side restaurant, Sojourn, told the New York Post. "Gas lets us do our job efficiently."
After facing pushback from Republicans and consumer advocacy groups, the DOE issued its final regulations, which will impact 3% of gas stove models, rather than the initial 50%.
The Biden administration doubled efficiency standards for light bulbs, requiring manufacturers to raise the levels for common light bulbs from 45 lumens per watt to more than 120 lumens per watt, a nearly 170% increase. Only LED bulbs will be able to comply with the standards, not compact fluorescent bulbs.
The DOE suggested that the regulations will slash greenhouse gas pollution by cutting 70 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next three decades.
When it takes effect in 2028, the rule will knock most currently available LEDs off the market and increase the average price of the remaining ones from $2.98 to an estimated $5.68, an increase of $2.70 per bulb, according to Lieberman.
Results from a Residential Energy Consumption Survey indicate that fewer than half of households reported using LEDs as their primary or exclusive lighting source.
The DOE implemented efficiency regulations to prohibit new non-condensing gas furnaces by 2028, by requiring that non-weatherized gas furnaces achieve an annual fuel utilization efficiency of 95%.
The American Gas Association, American Public Gas Association, National Propane Gas Association and manufacturer Thermo Products filed a lawsuit against DOE, claiming that costs could increase for 30% of senior-only households, 26% of low-income households and 27% of small business consumers if the regulation were to go into effect.
"Yesterday, the Biden administration finalized a rule that would effectively ban natural gas furnaces and other gas furnaces that are found in more than half of U.S. households," AGA Vice President of Energy Markets, Analysis, and Standards Richard Meyer told The National Desk in a statement. "In five years, around Christmas 2028, if you have to replace your gas furnace, you may be saddled with hundreds if not thousands of dollars of additional costs to upgrade that equipment to comply with this rule."
The Biden administration amended its energy conservation standards, putting into effect stricter energy standards for ceiling fans.
According to an analysis from the DOE, the new rules would save households about $39 over the lifespan of the new energy-efficient fan, FOX Business previously reported.
The regulation faced backlash from the House Small Business Committee, which claimed in a letter to the DOE secretary that it could put between 10% and 30% of small business ceiling fan manufacturers out of business.
Biden's appliance regulations could soon be in jeopardy, as President-elect Donald Trump is expected to overturn much of the current administration's climate agenda when he assumes the presidency in 2025.
President-elect Donald Trump has indicated that he would withdraw the U.S. from a global climate change agreement when he assumes office — but a second withdrawal could look different from the first.
The Paris Climate Agreement was established at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in 2015 as a legally binding treaty between nearly 195 parties who are committed to international cooperation on climate change. The U.S. officially entered into the agreement under former President Barack Obama in 2016.
Under Article 28 of the treaty, parties are allowed to withdraw from the agreement, but no earlier than three years after they officially entered. Therefore, Trump was barred from immediately leaving the treaty when he first took office and the U.S. was not officially withdrawn until the end of 2020.
President Joe Biden, in one of his first orders as president, reinstated the U.S. to the climate agreement in 2021. Ahead of the presidential election, Trump told Politico that he would be in favor of withdrawing from the treaty a second time, and given that Biden withdrew at the beginning of his term, this could be accomplished at a much quicker pace.
"It would be a very different timeline now," David Waskow, director of the international climate initiative at the World Resources Institute, told Scientific American.
Max Boykoff, professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and a fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research and Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder, told the university's paper that re-exiting from the agreement could cause "a loss of trust" among world leaders.
Boykoff also suggested that a U.S. withdrawal could encourage other countries to also exit the treaty, as it was recently reported that Argentina's Libertarian President Javier Milei is considering it.
"The withdrawal may also cause other leaders, who have also expressed resistance to addressing climate policy as a priority in their own countries, to leave the agreement," Boykoff told CU Boulder Today.
However, those in favor of Trump releasing the U.S. from the agreement tell Fox News Digital that there would be many benefits to a second withdrawal.
"The benefits of exiting the Paris climate agreement are many, first and foremost reclaiming U.S. sovereignty while respecting the rule of law," said H. Sterling Burnett, Director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute.
"Paris encourages the U.S. to agree to emission reductions that are both unnecessary from a climate perspective, since we don't control the climate, but which do place substantial costs on Americans while putting the nation at a competitive and geopolitical disadvantage to China, which emits more than double the U.S. with no firm reduction commitments," he added.
Burnett also suggested that Trump submit the treaty to the Senate for advice and consent, which would require a two-thirds vote for the U.S. to rejoin the climate agreement — creating a potential hurdle for future administrations seeking to reenter the accord.
Also under consideration is whether the incoming president will withdraw from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a treaty established in 1992 to prevent "dangerous human interference with the climate system."
Mandy Gunasekara, former EPA chief of staff during Trump's first term, suggested that the incoming president should not only withdraw from the treaty, but also exit UNFCCC, POLITICO E&E Reported.
Gunasekara said that the administration should get out of UNFCCC "if they’re looking for a more permanent response to getting out of bad deals for the American economy that do little to actually improve the environment."
Other leaders have suggested that the Paris Agreement itself could suffer in the future if the U.S. is not involved.
"The Paris Agreement can survive, but people sometimes can lose important organs or lose the legs and survive. But we don’t want a crippled Paris agreement. We want a real Paris agreement," Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, told the Guardian. "It’s very important that the United States remain in the Paris Agreement, and more than remain in the Paris agreement, that the United States adopts the kind of policies that are necessary to make the 1.5 degrees still a realistic objective."
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said China is the "greatest threat" to the United States and that President-elect Donald Trump will bring "peace through strength, not peace through appeasement."
Gimenez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital the CCP is the "adversary we have to watch, both militarily and economically."
"China is making great strides around the world," Gimenez said, pointing to its capacity in production, specifically with defense materials and weapons. "It surpasses that of the United States’ and we have seen that we are lacking."
Gimenez said the Russian-Ukraine war has "demonstrated to us that our defense capacity has been degraded over the decades."
"It shows we could run out of munitions fairly quickly if we had a prolonged fight with China," he said, warning that China also "has the ability to produce many more ships than we do."
Gimenez said the U.S. is "trying to do catch-up."
"We have to update how we do things at the Pentagon, we have to be more nimble, we have to get the private sector involved, and we have to eliminate bureaucracy that has hampered our ability to protect ourselves," he said.
But as for the approach to the China threat, Gimenez blasted the Biden administration, specifically President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"I think China, with Biden and Blinken, thought they could do just about anything they wanted or thought they could fool them," he said. "The Biden administration was always exhibiting weakness and trying to appease our enemies, whereas Trump knows exactly who our friends are, who our enemies are and is going to put the security of America first."
Gimenez added, "He understands that the security of America lies in peace through strength, not peace through appeasement."
As for confronting the threat in the coming months, Gimenez pointed to the importance of the U.S. being energy independent.
Gimenez said he wants to "make America the energy spigot of the world, where the world goes to get energy is America."
"It would help our financial situation, our balance sheet, and give us the ability to help our friends and weaken our enemies," he said.
"We could use our energy dominance as an economic weapon against our enemies, helping our friends and hurting our enemies," he continued. "We can substitute Iranian and Venezuelan oil with American oil, Russian oil with American oil, and then starve those countries which are allied with China of their greatest source of revenue and then impede their ability to help China."
"If China finds itself isolated in the world, I think that’s the best way we can contain this threat," he said. "But we have to project strength and the willingness to confront aggression by the CCP."
As for the House Select Committee on the CCP, he said they have "much more work to do."
"The China threat is increasing," he said, noting that the committee is bipartisan in its nature and that members on both sides of the aisle have "bought into that China is the threat and that China will be the threat."
"It’s not climate change, it’s China," he said. "And we have to confront that threat or live in a world that is dominated by the Chinese Communist Party."
"And Trump is going to project strength and back those words with action."
A group of U.S. oil and gas producers is upping the pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson to push through a major permitting reform bill, stressing in a letter Wednesday the urgency for the chamber to move swiftly on approving the legislation, which they see as crucial for attracting new investments in domestic oil and gas projects, bolstering national energy security and breathing new life into other long-stalled energy infrastructure projects.
The letter, authored by a coalition of U.S. oil and gas groups who represent a combined 80% of domestic fossil fuel production, stressed the need for House Republicans to swiftly and "immediately" pass the Energy Permitting Reform Act, or the 2024 bill authored by Sens. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo. They described that legislation as crucial to helping expedite actions for producers under the second Trump administration.
"While this bill is merely the first step towards comprehensive permitting reform in this country, we believe that passing the package now, at the end of the 118th, and then earnestly advancing additional National Environmental Policy Act reforms such as those being drafted by Chairman Westerman in the Natural Resources Committee, will ensure that America can get back on track as quickly as possible," the letter said.
Pressure on Johnson and House Republicans has mounted in recent days as lawmakers prepare for a final sprint before the end of the 118th session of Congress. Some have suggested the bill's best chances of passage are by paring it with NEPA reform — likely efforts championed by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., which could earn the permitting reform bill more buy-in from House Republicans.
Its signatories included more than half a dozen major oil and gas industry groups, including the Gulf Energy Alliance, the U.S. Oil & Gas Association, and the Independent Petroleum Association, among others.
In the letter, the groups pointed to an analysis from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that found that in 2000, it took an average of just two years for new U.S. energy infrastructure projects to go from being issued their first permit to becoming fully operational — a timeline, they noted, that has now extended to an average of more than five years for new projects.
"Such delays discourage investment in these projects and threatens our energy security," they said. "Many projects take even longer or are ultimately canceled as funding is lost or companies simply give up."
"The Energy Permitting Reform Act must be treated as an urgent priority," National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito told Fox News Digital in a statement. "With the transition to a new Congress and administration looming, this legislation is crucial for establishing a strong national energy and permitting policy framework that will propel federal support for American offshore energy well into the future."
"By simplifying the permitting process, we can boost our domestic energy production while maintaining environmental safeguards," Milito said, adding, "These reforms reaffirm America's commitment to leading the world in energy production, economic prosperity, and environmental stewardship."In campaigning for president, Trump has vowed to "unleash" U.S. energy production, including oil and gas production, and to "frack, frack, frack."
President-elect Donald Trump blamed the Biden administration for what he views as recent failures in U.S. oil and gas production and used many of his campaign trail stump speeches to take aim at the administration for its outsize focus on electric vehicle manufacturing and production, as well as the shuttering of aging power plants and the spike in energy prices, which increased by as much as 50% in the Keystone State.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Speaker Johnson's office for comment on the letter.
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to roll back several of President Joe Biden's green energy policies and initiatives when he assumes office in 2024.
While on the campaign trail, Trump vowed to lift the Biden administration's "war on energy" and "disastrous" energy policies.
"They annihilated your steel mills, decimated your coal jobs, assaulted your oil and gas jobs and sold off your manufacturing jobs to China and other foreign nations all over the world," Trump said of the current administration.
Trump appointed North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to head his newly formed National Energy Council, and former Rep. Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – two pro-energy appointees who are expected to take aim at several of Biden's policies. Here are five ways Trump could overturn several of those in short order:
The Paris Agreement, established at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in 2015, is a legally binding treaty among nearly 195 parties who are committed to international cooperation on climate change.
Trump officially withdrew from the treaty in 2020, but Biden reinstated the U.S. to the climate agreement after taking office in 2021.
The Trump campaign told Politico in June that the president-elect would be in favor of withdrawing the U.S. from the treaty for a second time if re-elected.
The EPA announced a final rule in March under the Clean Air Act to set new emissions standards that would require up to two-thirds of new cars sold to be electric vehicles by 2032.
The new standards would affect "light-duty vehicle manufacturers, independent commercial importers, alternative fuel converters, and manufacturers and converters of medium-duty vehicles," according to the EPA's final rule.
House Republicans have taken steps to block the mandate, passing the Congressional Review Act (CRA) in September to block the "out-of-touch regulation" from being enacted.
Biden is currently offering a tax credit of up to $7,500 to incentivize the purchase of greener vehicles.
However, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Trump plans to ax the tax credit as part of his sweep of Biden's climate agenda.
One of Trump's strongest allies, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, revealed in July that he supports getting rid of the credit. "Take away the subsidies," Musk posted to X, saying that "it will only help Tesla."
Companies that are financially sound, such as Tesla, could benefit if the playing field for electric vehicles is narrowed, while the smaller companies that rely on the tax credit for consumer affordability could face setbacks, analysts suggest.
Biden's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently approved an amendment to the Resource Management Plan (RMP) to ban new federal coal leases, essentially blocking any new federal mining leases in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, the country's largest coal-producing region, by 2041.
This region produces about 40% of the nation's coal. BLM, however, will allow for existing coal leases to continue to be developed.
Following the decision, Trump's transition team reinforced the idea of the president-elect's campaign promise to bolster American-made energy.
"Families have suffered under the past four years' war on American energy, which prompted the worst inflation crisis in a generation. Voters re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, including lowering energy costs for consumers," Karoline Leavitt, Trump-Vance Transition spokeswoman, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Biden's EPA recently announced that it will try to "incentivize" the oil and gas industry to reduce methane emissions by imposing a Waste Emissions Charge, allowed under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Under the Biden administration's new rule, certain oil and gas facilities would be charged $900 per metric ton of "wasteful" emissions in CY 2024, $1,200 for CY 2025 and $1,500 for CY 2026.
Trump-supporting oil-advocacy groups and House lawmakers slammed the fee, with the American Petroleum Institute releasing a policy road map for the incoming Trump administration to hit back against the EPA's final rule.
"Energy was on the ballot" in the 2024 elections, American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers told Fox News Digital in a statement following Trump's victory in November.
In electing Trump, Sommers said that voters had "sent a clear signal that they want choices, not mandates, and an all-of-the-above approach that harnesses our nation’s resources and builds on the successes of his first term."
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."
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.
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 Trump steps into office.
