WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency enhanced enforcement efforts this year, significantly reducing pollution in overburdened communities, the agency said in a report Thursday.
The EPA said it concluded more than 1,800 civil cases, a 3% increase over 2023, and charged 120 criminal defendants, a 17.6% increase over the previous year. The “revitalized enforcement and compliance efforts" resulted in more than 225 million pounds of pollution reductions in overburdened communities, the agency said in its final report on Biden-era enforcement actions before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Bolstered by 300 new employees hired since last year, the enforcement program focused on “21st century environmental challenges," including climate change, environmental justice and chemical waste, said David Uhlmann, EPA's assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance. More than half the agency’s inspections and settlements involved poor and disadvantaged communities long scarred by pollution, reflecting the Biden administration’s emphasis on environmental justice issues.
Enforcement efforts included first-ever criminal charges for a California man accused of smuggling climate-damaging air coolants into the United States. The case involved hydrofluorocarbons, a highly potent greenhouse gas also known as HFCs, a gas once commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners.
The EPA has pledged to enforce a rule imposing a 40% reduction in HFCs as part of a global phaseout designed to slow climate change.
In other highlights, engine maker Cummins Inc. paid more than $2 billion in fines and penalties — and agreed to recall 600,000 Ram trucks — as part of a settlement with federal and California authorities. Cummins was found to use illegal software that let Ram trucks — manufactured by Stellantis — to skirt diesel emissions tests for nearly a decade.
The fine is the largest ever secured under the federal Clean Air Act.
The EPA and Justice Department also reached a $241.5 million settlement with Marathon Oil for alleged air quality violations at the company’s oil and gas operations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The settlement requires Marathon to reduce climate- and health-harming emissions from those facilities and will result in over 2.3 millions tons worth of pollution reduction, officials said.
Uhlmann, who was confirmed as head of the enforcement office last year, said in an interview that with the help of a spending boost approved by Congress, the agency has made “consequential changes in how we approach enforcement at EPA.''
“We’ve revitalized an enforcement program that suffered more than a decade of budget cuts and and was badly hampered by the (COVID-19) pandemic,'' he said. The agency also weathered a series of actions by former President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back environmental regulations and reduce overall staffing.
“We’ve strengthened the partnership between the criminal and civil programs, and we’ve also focused on moving our cases with greater urgency so that we provide meaningful results to communities in time frames that make sense to the people who are harmed when unlawful pollution occurs,” Uhlmann said.
With Trump set to return to the White House, Uhlmann said he hoped enforcement would not suffer, noting that a host of civil and criminal investigations begun in the past two years could bear fruit in 2025 and beyond. Trump, who has named former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to be EPA administrator, has said he will again slash regulations and target what he calls onerous rules on power plants and oil and natural gas production.
Uhlmann declined to speculate on how enforcement will change under Trump but said, “Upholding the rule of law and making sure that polluters are held accountable and communities are protected from harmful pollution is not a partisan matter. We do enforcement at EPA based on the law, based on the facts, without regard to politics.
“So, you know, communities should expect that EPA will continue to protect them from harmful pollution."
FILE - David Uhlmann, chief of the environmental crimes section of the Department of Justice, answers questions during a news conference, Jan. 20, 2006, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
FILE - A 6.7L Cummins Diesel engine is displayed at the Ram booth during the media preview of the Chicago Auto Show, Feb. 6, 2014. (AP photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - Pump jacks extract oil from beneath the ground in North Dakota, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — European Union foreign ministers will meet in late January to discuss easing sanctions imposed on Syria, the bloc's foreign policy chief said Sunday. However, she said the move would depend on Syria's new rulers carrying out an inclusive political transition after last month’s overthrow of President Bashar Assad.
Kaja Kallas' comments came at a gathering of top European and Middle Eastern diplomats in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to discuss Syria’s future.
Saudi Arabia called for the lifting of sanctions, which threaten to undermine Syria's recovery from nearly 14 years of civil war that killed an estimated 500,000 people and displaced half the country's prewar population of 23 million.
European countries and the United States have been wary over the Islamist roots of the former insurgents who drove Assad out of power and who now lead an interim government.
The former rebels have promised to hold a national dialogue summit that includes different groups across Syria to agree upon a new political road map leading to a new constitution and an election.
Kallas said EU foreign ministers will look at how to ease sanctions during a Jan. 27 meeting in Brussels.
“But this must follow tangible progress in a political transition that reflects Syria in all its diversity,” she said in a post on the social media platform X. She also posted a photo of herself meeting the new Syrian foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani at Sunday’s gathering.
The U.S., the EU and some Arab nations began imposing sanctions on Syria after Assad’s brutal crackdown on the 2011 uprising against his rule and tightened them as the conflict spiraled into war.
Some of the measures are against individuals in Assad’s government, including freezing of assets. But many target the government in general, including bans on many financial and banking dealings, on oil purchases and on investment or trade in some sectors, crippling the wider Syrian economy.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said sanctions against “Assad’s henchmen who committed serious crimes” must remain in place.
But she called for “a smart approach to sanctions, providing rapid relief for the Syrian population. Syrians now need a quick dividend from the transition of power.” Baerbock did not elaborate but announced an additional 50 million euros ($51.2 million) in German aid for food, emergency shelters and medical care.
At the gathering, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said international and unilateral sanctions on Syria should be lifted.
Continuing them “will hinder the aspirations of the brotherly Syrian people to achieve development and reconstruction,” he said. He praised steps taken so far by the interim Syrian government, including promises to start a political process “that includes various components” of the Syrian people.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country, which was a strong supporter of the Syrian opposition to Assad, would try to help Syria in normalizing ties with the international community.
He said it was important to establish a “balance between the expectations of the international community and the realities faced by the new administration in Syria.”
He pledged Turkish support to the new government, especially in combating threats from the Islamic State group.
“As Turkey, we are ready to do our part to ease the difficult path ahead for the Syrian people,” he said in comments carried by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
Last week, Washington eased some of its restrictions on Syria, with the U.S. Treasury issuing a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.
The U.S. has also dropped a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of Ahmad al-Sharaa, a Syrian rebel leader formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month. Al-Sharaa was a former senior al-Qaida militant who broke with the group years ago and has pledged an inclusive Syria that respects the rights of religious minorities.
The rebels led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule.
Much of the world severed ties with Assad and imposed sanctions on his government — and its Russian and Iranian allies — over alleged war crimes and the manufacturing of the amphetamine-like stimulant Captagon, which reportedly generated billions of dollars as packages of the little white pills were smuggled across Syria’s porous borders.
With Assad out of the picture, Syria’s new authorities hope that the international community will pour money into the country to rebuild its battered infrastructure and make its economy viable again.
Follow AP’s Syria coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/syria
Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock speaks to the press during a conference on Syria's future attended by top European and Middle Eastern diplomats hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud speaks during a press briefing, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud speaks during a press briefing, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
Two men walk along the cells gallery of the infamous Saydnaya military prison on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
People peer through a hole in the wall into the cells gallery of the infamous Saydnaya military prison on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
A girl writes "Worship your God" in Arabic as a group of young volunteers paints a mural symbolizing peace on a wall on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock speaks to the press during a conference on Syria's future attended by top European and Middle Eastern diplomats hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwer Baraa)
A group of young volunteers paints a mural symbolizing peace on a wall on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock holds a press conference during an official visit, in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, right, meets with German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, left, and French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, center, in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (SANA via AP)
