Posted on January 15, 2013 by Mark Walker
The Attorney Generals of thirteen states (Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming) are investigating EPA’s sue-and-settle practice. At issue is the EPA’s practice of entering into voluntary settlements of lawsuits brought by environmental groups, through consent decrees, in which the EPA commits itself to promulgate environmental rules and regulations, often under strict time schedules, without input from other stakeholders and impacted parties, including the states. Often-times the EPA also reimburses the environmental group for its attorney fees. Although the stakeholders may have input in the subsequent rulemaking process, the concern is that the effectiveness of such input may be limited because certain results are prescribed by the voluntary settlement or because the agreed schedule effectively limits meaningful input and consideration.
These same concerns were also recently discussed in the June 28, 2012, hearing before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Hearing statements and testimony provided good descriptions of (i) how sue-and-settle settlements are a form of “off ramp” rulemaking bypassing the traditional rulemaking concepts of transparency, public participation and judicial review; (ii) how billions of dollars in added costs and millions of lost jobs have resulted from these off ramp settlements and why these added regulatory burdens may not have resulted had the traditional rulemaking process been followed; and (iii) the specific impact of EPA’s sue-and-settle settlement upon the Regional Haze rules.
On August 10, 2012, the thirteen Attorney Generals submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to EPA. Among other things, the request seeks communications between EPA and 80 identified “interested organizations”, and specifically identifies 33 sue-and-settle settlements entered into by EPA in the last three years. After noting in a press release that EPA entered into one consent decree on the same day the lawsuit was filed, the states seek to determine whether there was collusion to advance a common agenda between the environmental groups and EPA. The FOIA request’s stated purpose is to provide a report to be furnished to the states and Congress outlining EPA’s practice. So far, the EPA has done little but object to producing documents, seeking to impose fees upon the states even though the request should be exempt from fees. No meaningful production of documents has occurred.
Certainly there are some good arguments to be made regarding the benefits of allowing citizen groups to file lawsuits to hold EPA accountable. Similarly, there are articles refuting the suggestion of collusion concerning certain prior EPA settlements. Nevertheless, where important environmental policy issues are at stake with far reaching economic consequences, there should never be any question about collusion or secrecy. Transparency should always be the watchword. EPA’s production of the requested documents would do much to advance the goal of transparency. If the settlements were in the best interest of the public, they should be able to withstand the glare of public scrutiny.
Tags: EPA, sue-and-settle, off-ramp rulemaking, collusive settlements