The Department of Justice is rapidly moving away from enforcing the nation’s core pollution control laws in ways not seen in prior administrations, including President Trump’s first term. Drastically fewer civil enforcement lawsuits and severe cuts to staffing will adversely affect our health and environment, now and into the future.
Laws protecting public health and the environment are aimed at keeping our rivers, streams, and other water bodies fit for drinking, fishing, and other recreational uses. These laws help make our air safe to breathe and help counter the massive risks posed by greenhouse gases. They also foster safe disposal of hazardous materials produced by a modern, thriving society. But the laws work only if people comply with them.
I devoted nearly 40 years to environmental enforcement at the department and thus am well aware that priorities shift from one administration to another. And the department helped implement those changing priorities from one administration to the next, while also keeping the law and good government foremost in mind. The current change isn’t a mere shift in priorities; it’s a decision that will harm the rule of law and our environment.
Historic Drop in Civil Lawsuits
DOJ’s Environmental Enforcement Section (EES) is bringing far fewer civil enforcement lawsuits than in prior years.
DOJ created EES – the section I was privileged to lead for almost nine years – to bring the lion’s share of specialized federal pollution control and environmental clean-up lawsuits. Fewer enforcement lawsuits by EES will yield less accountability and encourage more entities to violate the law.
A September 2025 analysis by USA Today concluded that DOJ filed a total of 14 environmental enforcement lawsuits during the first full six months of the current administration, the lowest effort for that time frame by any administration in this century. Similarly, in November The Washington Post reported on findings that DOJ initiated only nine major civil cases against polluters on behalf of the EPA during the first eight months of the current administration, down from 46 civil lawsuits in the same time frame for the last administration and 53 during that time frame for the first Trump Administration. The Post reported that the number of cases settled has plummeted as well.
While results varied from year to year, the efforts of EES – working with client agencies like EPA – would annually secure for the nation hundreds of millions and sometimes billions of dollars’ worth of pollution control equipment and environmental clean-up activities. And EES also annually secured civil penalty awards against lawbreakers that aggregated to hundreds of millions and sometimes in excess of a billion dollars. ENRD Annual Reports note these results.
Exodus of Staff
The current administration has spurred widescale departures of personnel from EES – leaving the section at about half the size it was on January 20. Since the administration removed me from my role as EES’s chief in its first week, the section has fallen from approximately 125 lawyers to fewer than 70 today. The section also has suffered a significant loss in the number of professional support staff.
For the first several months of this administration, EES employees were encouraged to leave – with no assurance they would not be fired if they elected to stay. Some of those who left were among the section’s most experienced attorneys, something likely demoralizing to those who remain. While some parts of DOJ suffering heavy personnel losses have been allowed to advertise for new hires, thus far, EES has not been granted this tool.
Without adequate staff and related resources in EES, the environment and the rule of law will suffer – no matter the best efforts of the remaining workforce.
States and EPA Alone Cannot Cover for the Justice Department’s Shortfall
It isn’t reasonable or fair to expect that this enforcement shortfall will be cured by states or through federal EPA administrative tools or citizen suits.
State environmental operations are funded in significant part by categorical grants from the federal government through EPA. It’s unclear whether that funding will continue and at what level; considering this administration’s large-scale reduction of environmental protection measures so far, there’s reason for serious concern.
State enforcement is often more easily accomplished when the federal government leads the way. It can be a lot to ask a state to sue its own cities or major employers all on its own. Our federal system contemplates action by both the federal government and by the states to ensure nationwide consistency.
Federal EPA administrative enforcement likely will not fill the gap either. Some kinds of cases fall outside the reach of EPA’s administrative enforcement authorities, and others are more likely to succeed as lawsuits because of the kinds of discovery or injunctive relief needed. Citizen suits can fill some of the gap, but those groups are often constrained by standing and other legal requirements, and those suits were always intended to supplement and not replace federal government enforcement efforts.
Many people comply with the law – but not everyone, making enforcement essential. Enforcement encourages everyone to comply with the law and vindicates the choices of those who elect to comply on their own. But today the Justice Department is not treating enforcement that way, instead encouraging elimination of almost half its civil enforcement operation and dramatically reducing its enforcement lawsuits.
Tom Mariani served as chief of DOJ’s Environmental Enforcement Section from 2016 until February 2025, when he departed DOJ upon the then-Acting Attorney General reassigning him to the Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group. Mariani joined DOJ in 1986 through its Honors Program and worked on a wide range of pollution control and clean-up work under landmark federal statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Superfund law (a/k/a CERCLA), and the Oil Pollution Act.
Thanks for your many years of wonderful service. This article is heartbreaking.