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The Biden administration is reportedly celebrating the first-ever climate change-related arrest and conviction.

The arrest and conviction of California man Michael Hart, 58, is touted in a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report, released Thursday, that outlines all of the enforcement actions that the agency has taken since President Joe Biden assumed office in 2021.

The report specifically notes that Hart pleaded guilty in September to bootlegging greenhouse gasses — reportedly refrigerants like hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HFCs) — without the agency’s approval.

“Hart purchased refrigerants in Mexico and smuggled them into the United States in his vehicle, concealed under a tarp and tools,” an EPA press release reads. “Hart posted the refrigerants for sale on OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, and other sites, and sold them for a profit.”

This amounted to a violation of the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act), which reportedly prohibits the importation of HFCs without government permission.

“The illegal smuggling of hydrofluorocarbons, a highly potent greenhouse gas, undermines international efforts to combat climate change under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol,” EPA official David M. Uhlmann said in a statement after Hart’s conviction last spring.

“Anyone who seeks to profit from illegal actions that worsen climate change must be held accountable. This arrest highlights the significance of EPA’s climate enforcement initiative and our efforts to prevent refrigerants that are climate super pollutants from illegally entering the United States,” he added.

U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath also released a statement — albeit a somewhat disturbing one.

“This office is at the forefront of environmental prosecutions, and today is a significant milestone for our country,” she said. “This is the first time the Department of Justice is prosecuting someone for illegally importing greenhouse gases, and it will not be the last.”

The EPA report also notes that the agency charged a total of 121 criminal defendants with climate crimes in 2024 alone. The agency also issued $1.7 billion in administrative and judicial penalties, and it closed 1,851 civil cases.

“The results reflect a 3.4% increase in civil cases and a 17.6% increase in criminal charges compared to 2023,” according to Fox News. “[T]he EPA also noted that collaborative efforts on the ‘implementation of EPA’s national priorities’ led to a “12% increase in criminal leads opened because of referrals from EPA Headquarters and regional offices.”

All this comes the same month that Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor Jonathan Adler penned a piece for Reason magazine calling for the outright abolishment of the EPA.

In the column, he argued that while climate change still remains “a serious environmental concern,” it’s not clear how the EPA is helping.

“Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as demand for environmental protection increased, state and local governments adopted various protective measures,” he wrote. “By 1966, every state had adopted water pollution legislation of some sort—and key water pollution measures were improving well before the EPA got into the game. Similarly, key indicators of urban air quality were improving before the EPA appeared.”

“Not all these state and local measures were perfect, but that’s also true of federal regulation. Today, as environmental concerns butt up against other values, state and local governments have generally shown themselves to be more innovative, and more respectful of private property rights, than their federal counterparts,” he added.

His point was that the modern EPA is too much of a property rights violator to be any good.

President-elect Donald Trump, for his part, has nominated former Congressman Lee Zeldin to serve as EPA administrator.

Vivek Saxena
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