Environmental groups to sue over Alabama’s conflict of interest rules for regulators.
Three environmental groups have said they intend to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for "failing to ensure that Mississippi and Alabama have measures to prohibit conflicts of interest on state boards that approve and enforce Clean Air Act pollution permits."
And that oversight duty has never been more critical than right now under the Trump administration."
The groups argue that the EPA has allowed those two-year deadlines to lapse while Administrator Scott Pruitt has pursued other goals, such as rolling back the mercury and air toxics standards for coal-burning power plants.
"In our system of government, executive branch officials like Administrator Pruitt are required to do what Congress has mandated rather than voluntarily take dangerous actions to appease fossil fuel special interests," the letter reads.
Stephen Stetson, senior representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Alabama, said the lawsuit was not about any particular conflict of interest that the groups knew of or suspected, but the groups believe the public has the right to know whether any conflicts exist.
"They’re under an obligation to say, and they just haven’t been meeting that obligation.
This is really just about transparency."
Alabama says it is in compliance State officials with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management say there are other laws on the books that prevent that kind of conflict, even if it’s not explicitly written into the state’s implementation plan for the Clean Air Act.
Archie was hired to lobby for the interests of the BCA’s then-5,000 members, many of which were companies seeking air or water pollution permits from ADEM.