EPA Gives Environmental Fines Their Annual Inflation Boost
Published Date: 1/8/2025
Rule
Summary
Starting January 8, 2025, the EPA is raising the minimum and maximum fines it can charge for breaking environmental rules to keep up with inflation. This means companies and folks who don’t follow the law might face bigger penalties to encourage them to play fair. The changes help keep penalties strong and fair, making sure they pack a punch in today’s dollars!
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 2 costs, 0 mixed.
EPA raises environmental fines for violators
Starting January 8, 2025, the EPA increased the minimum and maximum civil monetary penalties it can impose by applying a CPI-based multiplier of 1.02598 (October 2024 CPI‑U 315.664 vs October 2023 CPI‑U 307.671) and rounding to the nearest dollar. The rule updates statutory penalty caps across many EPA statutes — for example, Clean Water Act penalties are shown as $68,445 (up from $66,712) and Clean Air Act caps are shown as $124,426 (up from $121,275) in Table 1 of 40 CFR 19.4.
Which violations and dates the new levels cover
The new statutory penalty levels in Table 1 apply to civil penalties assessed on or after January 8, 2025 for violations that occurred after November 2, 2015. Penalty levels shown in the prior column of Table 1 apply to penalties assessed on or after December 27, 2023 but before January 8, 2025; Table 2 lists levels that apply to violations occurring on or before November 2, 2015 or to other earlier date ranges described in Sec. 19.2.
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