EPA has instructed staff to ease up on enforcement and compliance actions against energy facilities and to stop basing any agency actions on environmental justice, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO.
The memo was issued Wednesday, the same day EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a sweeping deregulatory agenda in which he promised “to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more.”
The memo from Jeffrey Hall, the acting head of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, is aimed at realigning enforcement efforts to fit the priorities laid out by President Donald Trump and Zeldin.
“Pursuant to the President’s Executive Orders, enforcement and compliance assurance actions shall not shut down any stage of energy production (from exploration to distribution) or power generation absent an imminent and substantial threat to human health or an express statutory or regulatory requirement to the contrary,” Hall wrote.
