"The EPA released its latest enforcement and compliance report and touted the agency’s crackdown on environmental crimes under the Trump administration, yet 75 percent of the criminal cases closed last fiscal year originated before the president took office."

"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."

Wyatt Myskow and Lisa Sorg report for Inside Climate News March 10, 2026. [2]