Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 07/16/2013 11:09:06 PM PDT by george76
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the attorneys general of 11 other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday, demanding that the agency turn over documents the states allege will show the agency cooperates with environmental groups as part of a "sue and settle" legal strategy to develop regulations.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleges that binding consent decrees between the EPA and environmental groups that have sued the agency over the years have led to new rules and regulations for states without allowing their attorneys general to defend their interests and those of its businesses and consumers.
"The EPA is picking winners and losers, exhibiting favoritism, at the expense of due process and transparency,” Pruitt said in a statement. "They are manipulating our legal system to achieve what they cannot through our representative democracy. The outcomes of their actions affect every one of us by sticking states with the bill and unnecessarily raising utility rates by as much as 20 percent."
Besides Oklahoma, the attorney generals of Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wyoming are parties to the lawsuit.
...
Pruitt said as many as 40 lawsuits have been filed against EPA over the years by such environmental groups as Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, WildEarth Guardians and the Sierra Club that have led to consent decrees, "sometimes on the same day the lawsuit is filed," that include terms and conditions that go beyond statutory guidelines approved by Congress.
"I would look at that very suspect and say: 'What's going on?'" Pruitt said. "The EPA is picking winners and losers.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This will run through the court system, and end up in the Supreme Court by the summer of 2016. I don’t see the fed’s winning....the state’s accusation is fairly strong and it’s going to revamp the way that the EPA operates for the next decade.
I think this is GREAT!!! I only wish CA and the rest of the states would join in this to make it a full court press!!!
By the way, here’s the latest from my county that makes me smile!!!
Good to see a few states pushing back.
The Sierra Flub's legal arm is "EarthJustice!" It was either them or some other group that pulled this stunt to get EPA to force the use of an oxidizing agent called M.T.B.E. in CA's gasoline that polluted wells in the Tahoe Basin and all around the rest of the state.
The gasoline pipeline from the Bay Area refinery to Reno that parallels I-80 leaked a bunch of the stuff in a stream feeding Donner Lake in the early 2000's. Carol Browner told the Regional Council of Rural Counties that they were forced in the 90's to force the use of this pollutant by a "friendly lawsuit" by one of these miserable militant groups!!!
This has been and ongoing tactic for over 25 years, from my experiance. They set the fines so high, that when they settle for less you pay instead of risking further exposure.
This sue and settle scam prevents the public from knowing what the EPA is doing until it is too late.
The USFS and BLM play similar games.
Yippeee!
Some sanity, at last! You have NO idea how much I’ve missed it. ;o)
BTTT!
It’s about time for this lawsuit!
Glad to see this. States should be pushing back against the EPA (heck, the whole FedGov) in every way possible.
So petty little commissars get to push the states around? Gee, who would have thought that could happen when the states were booted from the senate?
I’m glad GA is involved but what the states really need to do is start telling the EPA to stick it. Let it go to court and tell the court to stick it. Only the SCOTUS has jurisdiction over a sovereign state.
That was the NRDC, not the Sierra Club, and it was done during the Bush I administration.
Probably how Marylands new Rain Tax came about. Property owners (Commercial and Residential, but not Gov) will be charged an amount which rain rolls off a paved surface, to help the Chesapeake Bay. Some will be paying more than their property taxes.
pfl
Great to see this is happening, it’s long overdue.
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