by Steven P. Solow and Chloe Graham
From left to right: Steven P. Solow, and Chloe Graham (Photos courtesy of Baker Botts LLP)
The Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) announced a new Strategic Civil-Criminal Enforcement Policy (Policy) that is perhaps the most significant change in environmental enforcement since the passage of the basic environmental laws decades ago. At bottom, the new Policy addresses the long-standing concern that the decision to enforce a matter civilly or criminally ultimately depended on whose “desk” it landed on.