Sometimes They Do Mean What They Say

DOJ replaces “Environment” with “Energy” in its Natural Resources Division, prioritizing energy—especially fossil fuels—over environmental protection

ENRD seal. (Source: Department of Justice)

As a career litigator and Chief of the Environmental Enforcement Section at the Justice Department, I learned and sometimes used a phrase to explain the department’s operation: “DOJ says what it means and means what it says.”

That’s certainly the case when it comes to the department’s recent decision to change the name of its Environment and Natural Resources Division, where the Environmental Enforcement Section is housed, to the Energy and Natural Resources Division. The change reveals a sad truth: The pollution control and clean-up laws protecting public health and the environment are now less important to the division than before (and thus most likely less important to federal agencies served by the division, including the Environmental Protection Agency).

The name change did not happen in isolation; it follows a dramatic drop in division resources devoted to environmental enforcement, which inevitably reduces the environmental cleanup and pollution control that otherwise could be secured through judicial enforcement of the law. Sadly, dropping “environment” from the division’s name reflects its current reality.

Substituting “energy” into the division’s title, meanwhile, might best be seen as a half-truth: While regularly disfavoring wind and solar energy development (even attacking it), the current administration has tried to advance other energy forms, especially fossil fuels.

The Name of the Division Follows Its Function

Formed in 1909 as the Public Lands Division, it first focused on protecting the public’s claims to natural resources and publicly held lands, and combatting illegal conveyances of public lands to private interests. The work included suits to set aside illegal deeds and leases. In 1933, then-Attorney General Homer Cummings dropped “Public” from the division’s name, making it the Lands Division. This change reflected the division’s growing role in land acquisition by the federal government, including by condemnation, both to construct federal facilities and to create legacies like our national parks.

In 1965, DOJ changed the division’s name to the Land and Natural Resources Division, again to reflect shifts in function. Land acquisition remained part of the work, but litigation over water resources and rights continued to grow, as did some litigation against polluters — for example under the River and Harbors Act, which prohibited dumping refuse into navigable waters.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Congress enacted a raft of environmental protection laws, including many with judicial enforcement provisions aimed at compelling environmental compliance and cleanup. These include the modern Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (the “Superfund” law). Many of these statutes produced massive enforcement litigation by the division, especially its Environmental Enforcement Section, driving in part a sensible name-change in 1990 to the Environment and Natural Resources Division.

Replacing “Environment” with “Energy” Reflects Changing Priorities as Staff for Civil Judicial Enforcement Work Falls by Half

The division’s Environmental Enforcement Section, where I worked for almost 40 years and led for almost nine, now has less than half the lawyers that it had at the start of this administration. DOJ allowed 18 months to pass before making any public move to mitigate those losses.

At the same time, the division has touted its energy-related litigations, especially those concerning fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Recent press announcements include court decisions that move forward plans to restart a nuclear plant in Michigan, oil and gas extraction in the Gulf of Mexico, and President Trump’s executive orders to “unleash” fossil fuel production.

All administrations generally will look to defend their energy-related (and other) decisions. And the division has litigated energy-related cases for decades, such as cases related to defending aspects of oil-and-gas leasing. (Until 2018 the division’s unofficial seal included what looks to be a petroleum production platform in the Gulf of Mexico!) Indeed, at the heart of ENRD’s litigation docket is the challenge of balancing resource extraction and other human activities with clean air, clean water, ecosystem protection, Tribal sovereignty, and public health. The difference here is the massive change in priority. Resources for civil enforcement look to remain lower than they have been since the mid-1980s. As in prior administrations, the public servants who staff the division today, including its Environmental Enforcement Section, will work to be as effective and efficient as possible, incorporating improved techniques and technology as practicable. But resource reductions matter, especially in labor-intensive, district court litigation where enforcement work often takes place. All of this means that we’ll see less environmental protection through enforcement of the law.

The name change confirms the division’s operating plan and reality: Environmental protection through enforcement of the law is less of a priority than it has been in decades. The defense and promotion of favored legacy energy sources, especially fossil fuels, is now much more important.

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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 permanently reassigning him to the Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group, an office apparently created to sideline public servants from other parts of DOJ. Mariani joined DOJ in 1986 through its Honors Program and worked on a wide range of pollution control and clean-up matters 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. (For more on the history of ENRD, see ENRD Public Lands and National Treasures: The First 100 Years (100 ANNIV BOOK 11 8 2009 NT.pub) and One Hundred Years of the Environment and Natural Resources Division (One Hundred Years of the Environment and Natural Resources).)