Judges question EPA for failing to impose cleanup standards

摘要

The top Trump-appointed lawyer in the Justice Department's environmental practice appeared in federal court today to defend the administration's refusal to impose new standards on the hardrock mining industry. Jeffrey Bossert Clark, head of DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division, was in the courtroom trenches today repeatedly arguing that the president and EPA have broad discretion when deciding whether to regulate particular industries under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA. But federal judges hearing today's arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit grappled with EPA's decades of inaction on the provision of the law requiring cleanup insurance for various facilities handling hazardous substances. "What's going on?" asked Judge Thomas Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee. "Why is that the case? That's a long, long time."