Welcome back to the Politics of Prosecution Podcast! Welcome to the Politics of Prosecution Podcast. This podcast examines the interaction between politics, broadly defined, and criminal prosecution on the local, state and federal levels. Our goal is to produce a variety of shows using different media. Our first series of eight episodes is produced by students in High Point University’s Honors Program. They will look at a variety of issues raised by ongoing events.
This tenth episode features a breakdown of the EPA through different presidential administrations and how its investigating and prosecuting environmental crimes is effected by the different administrations. They specifically look at the Obama Administration’s Clean Water Rule and the Trump Administrations repeal of it and the reevaluation of the Waters of the United States. They then look at a current case being prosecuted and speculate how they think this would be prosecuted in the Obama Administration vs the Trump Administration. They also talk about how the upcoming election this November could have an effect on the EPA’s prosecutorial power and discretion.
The sources used for reference in this episode are: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/02/15-ways-trump-administration-impacted-environment/
https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/basic-information-enforcement
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/history-clean-water-act
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2019/03/27/467697/debunking-trump-administrations-new-water-rule/
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sc/pr/columbia-man-indicted-federal-charge-dumping-hazardous-waste
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/us/obama-epa-clean-water-pollution.html
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/clean-water
https://www.pbs.org/now/science/cleanwater.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20170108114336/https://www.ok.gov/oag/Media/About_the_AG/
https://www.sierraclub.org/lay-of-the-land/2014/03/obama-administration-restores-clean-water-act-protections-streams-and
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/798809951/trump-administration-is-rolling-back-obama-era-protections-for-smaller-waterways)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/33/1319
https://www.justice.gov/usao/resources/annual-statistical-reports
https://www.safewater.org/fact-sheets-1/2017/1/23/cleaning-up-after-pollution#:~:text=This%20process%20typically%20takes%20between,to%20go%20on%20for%20decades.
https://www.justice.gov/usao/resources/annual-statistical-reports
https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/our-mission-and-what-we-do
https://www.justice.gov/enrd/about-division
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2015/06/29/2015-13435/clean-water-rule-definition-of-waters-of-the-united-states
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2005/04-1034
https://www.justice.gov/enrd/jeffrey-bossert-clark
https://cfpub.epa.gov/compliance/criminal_prosecution/index.cfm?action=3&prosecution_summary_id=2416
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063639213
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/05/594078923/scott-pruitt-out-at-epa
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/27/trump-to-direct-rollback-of-obama-era-water-rule-tuesday/

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