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Article: Trump's EPA says it's cracking down, but the data tells a different story

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5 / 10

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Hino Motors, a Toyota subsidiary, pleaded guilty and agreed to pay over $2.6 billion in fines and forfeited profits for a decade-long scheme involving over 105,000 vehicles and engines with falsified emissions data. The EPA, announcing its enforcement results for fiscal year 2025, credited the Trump administration with closing more cases than during the Biden years, though records show 75% of those criminal cases originated prior to Trump's second term.

The agency's reported enforcement statistics, including billions in penalties and compliance investments, are being challenged by a former EPA attorney and watchdog groups as misleading propaganda. Critics argue the data obscures a significant drop in actual enforcement actions, particularly under the Clean Air Act and Superfund programs, since the current administration took office.

The main topics covered are the Hino Motors emissions fraud settlement, the EPA's enforcement statistics and the political controversy surrounding their interpretation, and criticisms alleging a decline in genuine environmental enforcement.

Original URL

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/trumps-epa-says-its-cracking-down-but-the-data-tell-a-different-story/

Source Feed

Ars Technica

Published Date

2026-03-11 13:27

Fetched Date

2026-03-11 10:30

Processed Date

2026-03-11 10:32

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Present

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For over a decade, Hino Motors Ltd. imported and sold more than 105,000 vehicles and engines with misleading or fabricated emissions data, until testing by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed the emissions-fraud scheme.
The case would lead the Toyota subsidiary to plead guilty and agree to pay over $1.6 billion in fines over five years and forfeit an additional $1 billion in profits made from the illicit sales.
On Monday, the EPA touted the case in its enforcement and compliance assurance results for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2025, contending in a press release that the agency closed more cases in President Donald Trump’s first year of his second term than in any year of the Biden administration.
Yet 75 percent of the EPA’s 61 criminal cases that were adjudicated in federal court during that time originated before Trump’s second term, EPA records and legal documents show. The EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice announced the Hino Motors penalty Jan. 15, 2025—five days before Trump’s inauguration.
The EPA did not respond to questions from Inside Climate News about the enforcement and compliance numbers.
In announcing the Trump administration’s results, the EPA says that in the last fiscal year, it concluded 2,127 civil enforcement cases, assessed over $1.2 billion in civil penalties and criminal fees and secured more than $6.4 billion to return facilities to compliance. The veracity of the figures listed on the EPA website hinges on when the investigations began and the nature of the compliance actions, whose details are lacking.
“This is a release that is propaganda,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and a former senior enforcement attorney at the EPA. “It doesn’t reflect reality in a number of ways.”
One example: The EPA has stopped enforcing the Clean Air Act, Whitehouse said, negotiating only one settlement since the Trump administration took office, compared to 26 in the first year of Trump’s first term and 22 in Biden’s first year. Clean Air Act enforcement actions often involve the fossil fuel and motor vehicle industries that account for most air pollution. Superfund cleanup settlements, Whitehouse said, have also hit new lows.