Wednesday, January 20, 2021 Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) released its annual enforcement report detailing the results of the past year’s civil and criminal enforcement and compliance efforts. The report covers the 2020 fiscal year, which ran from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020, and thus provides some key insight into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental enforcement. The takeaway points from the 2020 report include that EPA: Assessed nearly $160 million administrative and judicial penalties, a decrease from the $365.9 million in 2019 (though just more than double the 2018 number), and secured injunctive relief worth approximately $2.95 billion, the smallest figure in a decade;