So long to 'sue and settle' at the EPA

by Ben Hurst March 13, 2018

“The days of regulation through litigation are over.” So said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in October 2017.  His intentions were right, but the bitter aftertaste of "sue and settle" lingers on. In Missouri, we labor still under the yoke of such regulation.

In February 2016, a special interest group filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to order an all-too-willing EPA to promulgate new rules for nutrients in Missouri lakes. In December 2016, the EPA agreed to issue new rules by December 2017 — warp speed for a rulemaking concerning more than 2,482 reservoirs in three different ecoregions — and, as often happens in these cases, paid for the special interest group’s attorneys’ fees to boot. The court blessed the “settlement” and issued an order with the force of law.

So, a special interest group thinks Missouri needs nutrient criteria, and now it will get them, with free two-day shipping.

The problem is that, other than a half dozen activists in St. Louis and one judge in Jefferson City, none of Missouri’s six million citizens ever had any say in the matter. Those remaining six million Missourians have real and substantial interests, both in their waterways and in the use of their other resources that are no less important than those of special interest groups in St. Louis.........To Read More.....