EPA working to revive use of SEPs in civil settlements

EPA’s enforcement office is encouraging staff to consider using popular supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in environmental settlements where appropriate, says the agency’s top enforcement official, part of the Biden administration’s effort to revive SEPs following Trump administration moves to prohibit the projects. Lawrence Starfield, acting chief of EPA’s Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA), writes in an April 26 memo that the revival of SEPs -- in which defendants in cases pay for environmentally beneficial projects -- is part...