The post-mortem on the Trump Administration shows evidence of significant organizational damage to both the U.S. EPA and the Department of Justice. Through content analysis of EPA criminal investigations that led to prosecutions, we analyze all 282 environmental crime prosecutions during this era to explore the scope of the overall output of cases adjudicated, whether serious crimes were prosecuted, and if prosecutors were able to secure substantial penalties. We compared these findings to 914 environmental crime prosecutions that occurred during the Obama Administration. We found that output and charging patterns were steady during the Trump Era, serious crimes were consistently prosecuted, and prosecutors secured some $3.1 billion in monetary penalties, 700 years of probation, and 289 years of incarceration. These results showed federal agencies managing to muddle through and achieve their organizational objectives under duress to achieve a reduced, but steady output compared to the Obama Era. We conclude with three recommendations for the Biden Administration to strengthen the criminal enforcement of federal environmental law in the coming years, particularly as it relates to environmental justice communities.
Persistence or Desistence: Prosecuting Environmental Crimes During the Trump and Obama Administrations
