EPA General Counsels Give 40 year Perspective
03.18.11 5:35 PMI am blogging this week from Salt Lake City at the ABA Section of Environment, Energy & Resources Annual Conference on Environmental Law. Yesterday three former EPA general counsels and the current general counsel spoke about the next 40 years of EPA. You may recall In December EPA celebrated its 40th anniversary. Scott Fulton, the current general counsel noted the hallmarks of a successful EPA. In summary, (1) rules must be clear, implementable and enforceable, (2) there must be sharing of information to allw government participation including collecting predecisional and post decisional views as well as to engage the regulated community, (3) EPA must be accountable, and (4) there must be fair resolution of disputes. Some of the key milestones in the past were identified as (1) the amount of environmental investment that has taken place, (2) transformational cases on interpretation of EPA rules such as Chevron and American Trucking, (3) transparentcy aspects such as the TRI and polluter pay concepts and (4) superfund reform and brownfield redevelopment. Scott Fulton noted that one of the biggest challenges is the information revolution. He is interested in where this will go and how it will affect the environmental area of practice. Don Elliott said that the biggest issue he sees in the future is the partisan divide around environmental issues. He said that we need to learn to listen to each other to make additional progres. Mr. Cannon said that there is a trend toward convergance of environmental systems toward internationalization. To successfully address the most effective solutions we must involve other countries and institutions. Mr. Elliott also noted that EPA needs to do a better job in talking to skeptics. Anyway, good perspectives from folks who have been on the big stage.
Leave a Comment
No comments yet. You should leave one!