Posted on 10/17/2017 8:55:37 AM PDT by RightGeek
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt ended the agencys sue and settle policy Monday, criticizing regulation through litigation as wrong and abusive.
The days of regulation through litigation are over, said Administrator Pruitt. We will no longer go behind closed doors and use consent decrees and settlement agreements to resolve lawsuits filed against the Agency by special interest groups where doing so would circumvent the regulatory process set forth by Congress. Additionally, gone are the days of routinely paying tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees to these groups with which we swiftly settle.
Under previous administrations, particularly the Obama administration, special interest environmental groups such as the Sierra Club used lawsuits to force the EPA and other federal agencies to issue regulations that advance their climate change agenda. Those groups would sue the EPA and ask the court to compel the agency to enact new environmental regulations.
Critics say the sue and settle policy amounts to regulation through litigation, which allowed former EPA administrations to skirt around the agencys limited rulemaking authority.
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(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Great news!
Sure.
It worked for Obama and his minions.
What's changed?
Very sad leftist lawyers!
All totalitarian fascists!
Lot of payola out there manipulated by leftists.
WINNING!!!!
MAGA!!!!
Thank you once again, President Trump!
What RooRoobird said!
I think this is part of the reason that the entire agency should be shut down. They have used the agency as a leftist funding source. Put them all out of work.
Great. I hope the government is also stopping the practice of the government suing an industry for some violation and then allowing them to settle out by paying big bucks to a liberal organization selected by the agency rather than the taxpayers. This was an end-run around government fines bypassing the government yet much of it somehow appearing in contributions to the Democrats. I believe ACORN and its successors have been frequent beneficiaries of this practice.
Environmental Loons have a new plan to get money , give rivers human rights and then become the guardian and then sue everyone near a river ,I think they’re starting with the Colorado River
Sadly, I think we are too far down the road and this will have no effect.
A great deal of the abuse involved a group filing a suit and then the EPA settled out of court and the judge issued an order based on that settlement. No review for compliance with law. Another part of the scam involved the group shopping for a sympathetic judge, obtaining a favorable ruling and the EPA declining to appeal to a higher court. In both cases, collusion between the EPA and environmental groups was required. That should be stopped by this action.
Does this mean an end to enviros getting taxpayer funding via the little-known and misnamed "Equal Access to Justice Act," or is that the next issue to be dealt with?
And where’d the money go that the EPA extorted? To Obama’s favored left wing groups opposing conservatives.
“Lots of very sad lawyers today.”
A college roommate of mine is an environmental lawyer. No sympathy for loss in biz he may incur as a result of this policy change.
So how do you stop it? These groups will continue to sue and activist judges will continue to rule in their favor. Is the EPA going to ignore court orders?
They will at least to some extent have to apply the law. In the past the EPA would collude with the environmentalists to draw up an agreement which was inevitably favorable to the environmentalists paying them extravagant settlements and attorney fees. The judge would then just sign off on the agreement.
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