A Sheep in the Closet: The Erosion of Enforcement at the EPA

This report examined environmental enforcement in the first two years of the Trump administration. Based on extensive interviewing with EPA employees and recent retirees, environmental enforcement data and internal documents, the report concluded that the EPA was no longer capable of fulfilling its mission to ensure competent enforcement of federal environmental laws. In place of that “gorilla in the closet” role characterized by its first administrator, William Ruckelshaus, it had become a “sheep in the closet.”