EPA/SCOTT PRUITT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Lawyers are digging in for longer and more expensive fights with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The new posture follows an order by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that environmental groups say will complicate settlements when plaintiff lawyers sue the agency for habitually failing to issue regulations on schedule.
The directive, released this month, requires the agency to seek the participation of affected industries and states in settlement negotiations. Environmental groups say the policy will drag out what should be easily negotiated deals…
The order also instructs the EPA to avoid agreements that pay the legal fees of environmental groups, potentially forcing them to litigate to recoup their costs or forgo them entirely.
Environmental groups brought dozens of cases against the EPA during the Obama administration that sought to force the agency to fulfill Congress’s regulatory demands. The resulting settlements, with few exceptions, required the agency to produce regulations by a certain date but placed no conditions on their substance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the University of Virginia found in separate studies.”
-Joe Palazzolo, “New EPA Settlements Policy Has Lawyers Bracing for Long Disputes,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 30, 2017 05:30am