CLIMATE CHANGE/EPA/LEGAL/LOBBYING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Fossil fuel lobbyists and environmentalists are set for a legal battle over whether the Trump administration will defend regulations on chemical plant safety.
The Union for Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club and Earthjustice plan to jointly file a motion Wednesday [4-12-17] to intervene in a lawsuit filed by fossil fuel groups in March that asks the Environmental Protection Agency to delay or reconsider a rule that places more regulations on chemical plants. The chemical plant regulations were signed into the Federal Register in January as a direct response to the fertilizer plant explosion in West Texas that killed 15 and injured more than 160 in 2013.
‘We don’t know for sure whether EPA will defend it or not, but given the fact that (EPA) Administrator (Scott) Pruitt has in the past opposed this regulation, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that we won’t get EPA out there defending the rule,’ said Yogin Kothari, Washington representative with the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.”
-Miranda Green, “Scientists to file motion to defend chemical plant rule, fearing Trump admin won’t,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 13, 2017 04:55am