Elon Musk's business empire has come under fire for alleged environmental violations, with his companies Tesla and SpaceX facing accusations of breaking bedrock environmental laws in the US. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), tasked with enforcing these laws, is facing deregulation and budget cuts under the Trump administration, raising concerns about the agency's ability to hold polluters accountable.

Internal EPA records obtained by The Verge show repeated enforcement actions against Tesla over the Clean Air Act and federal hazardous waste law between 2015 and February of this year. The records also show multiple enforcement actions taken against SpaceX over the Clean Water Act since 2015. These allegations point to a systemic failure to properly handle hazardous waste and comply with emissions standards at Tesla's facilities, and unauthorized wastewater discharges at SpaceX's Starbase Launch Pad site in Texas.

Tesla has faced allegations of mishandling hazardous waste, including the illegal disposal of hazardous automotive components, and failing to comply with emissions standards for equipment leaks. The company has settled multiple lawsuits with regulators, including a $1.5 million settlement with San Francisco and 24 other counties over hazardous waste violations. SpaceX, on the other hand, has been accused of discharging industrial wastewater without a permit, releasing tens of thousands of gallons of waste into wetlands.

Despite these allegations, Elon Musk has been a key player in the Trump administration's efforts to deregulate the EPA. Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help Donald Trump get reelected and has spearheaded the launch of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), aimed at slashing federal spending and firing workers, including those from agencies tasked with ensuring companies comply with environmental laws. The EPA has been one of the first agencies targeted by DOGE, with mass layoffs and drastic reductions in the scope of its work.

The EPA's ability to hold polluters accountable is at stake, according to current and former EPA employees and outside experts. The agency's enforcement arm has been restricted, with a memo issued by EPA leadership restricting the types of enforcement actions the agency can take moving forward. The memo explicitly bars the agency from considering environmental justice in its decisions, and requires approval from the assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance for many actions.

Career EPA employees warn that companies could see the dismissal of a high-profile enforcement case against a Louisiana rubber plant as a pass to pollute. "I'm worried about the message this sends to industry. Already, I'm hearing about companies pushing back, referencing the weak position they perceive EPA to be in," an EPA employee said. The trend is likely to continue under Trump's return, with the average annual number of EPA inspections of polluters and average number of civil cases referred to the DOJ dropping by roughly a third compared to the second term of the Obama administration.

The implications of these developments are far-reaching, with the potential to undermine the EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment. As the agency faces staffing and budget cuts, its ability to enforce environmental regulations is being severely curtailed. "When you cut staff, you will get less work done. It is as simple as that," said Walter Mugdan, a former deputy regional administrator at the EPA.

The Trump administration's priorities are clear, with the president stating that "environmental regulation is the biggest tool for stopping growth ... it costs much more to do things environmentally clean." The administration's plans to eliminate the EPA's stand-alone Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance and diffuse its work across several other departments will only make it more difficult for the agency to enforce regulations.

As the EPA's ability to hold polluters accountable is eroded, the consequences for the environment and public health could be severe. "Everything that we're seeing certainly points to a political agenda behind enforcement, and that the priority is to let industry and regulated entities loose, unleash them from regulation," said Larry Starfield, who served as the principal deputy assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance from 2011 to 2023.

The story raises questions about the role of Elon Musk and other business leaders in shaping environmental policy, and the potential for corruption and conflicts of interest. As one EPA employee put it, "How do you spell corruption? E-L-O-N."