A new report from the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) says the Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump administration initiated a record low number of legal actions against polluters in 2025 — fewer than during Trump’s earlier term. By reviewing court records, EIP found the U.S. Department of Justice filed just 16 enforcement suits on the EPA’s behalf.
That count is far below comparable starts under recent presidents: 87% lower than the first year of Barack Obama’s second term, 76% lower than Joe Biden’s first year, and 81% lower than Trump’s first year in 2017, according to EIP.
Part of the drop appears tied to staffing at the Justice Department. An E&E News analysis cited by EIP found that at least one-third of attorneys in DOJ’s environment division left within the past year, shrinking the pool of government lawyers available to bring cases.
EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch pushed back in an emailed statement to NPR, saying the agency remains committed to clean air, land and water. “Unlike the last administration, we are focused on achieving swift compliance and not just overzealous enforcement intended to cripple industry based on climate zealotry,” Hirsch wrote. She called the EIP report “erroneous” and said the agency would soon publish data showing the EPA “has concluded more cases in the first year of the Trump administration than the Biden administration had in its last year.”
EIP also reported a decline in administrative penalties. Through September, the EPA imposed about $41 million in fines — roughly $8 million less (adjusted for inflation) than the same period in Biden’s first year, and about $5 million less than during Trump’s first administration, the group said. “Our nation’s environmental laws are meaningless when EPA does not enforce the rules,” said Jen Duggan, EIP’s executive director. “Failing to enforce our environmental laws means Americans across the country are more likely to be exposed to illegal air and water pollution that threatens their health and their quality of life.”
EIP acknowledged that comparing enforcement in a single first year has limits, since many cases take longer than a year to resolve. The group also noted some enforcement areas, such as drinking water standards, where the current administration’s numbers are higher than those of prior administrations.
The report arrives as the Trump administration emphasizes deregulation, agency reorganization and personnel changes at the EPA. In March, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans to target more than two dozen rules and policies, calling the effort the “most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.” The administration frames those rollbacks in economic terms while reversing Biden-era climate policies and promoting domestic fossil fuel production.
Trump has questioned mainstream climate science publicly — in September he called climate change a “con job” at the United Nations — and previously withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Agreement. Administrator Zeldin said the administration aims to “drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” adding that the administration is “driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.”
Officials plan to repeal power plant climate pollution limits, overturn a 2009 finding that underpins many climate rules, and rescind greenhouse gas regulations for vehicles. Those policy shifts are unfolding as climate scientists report the past three years have been the hottest on record, a trend that many scientists say indicates accelerating warming.