While environmentalists filed a flurry of lawsuits to force EPA to draft or tighten air and climate change rules shortly before President Bush left office, they are indicating a willingness to defer litigation against the Obama EPA over key issues in order to foster discussions with agency officials that could achieve activists' regulatory goals. Activists filed a number of lawsuits against Bush EPA air pollution standards in order to "set the agenda" for the Obama EPA. Environmentalists are hopeful that the Obama administration will be more favorable to reviewing and tightening the various air standards under legal challenge. "It's appropriate to file the suits against the Bush administration because they are the ones who have done the damage," and finalized the rules at issue in the litigation, says one Earthjustice attorney. "It didn't make sense to sue the Obama administration over what the Bush administration had done.
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