In an intriguing post on Law & The Environment, Seth Jaffe notes that, in part because of the ongoing sequester and budgetary concerns, EPA’s future enforcement efforts may rely more heavily on citizen groups. Quoting Cynthia Giles,  the Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, as saying that “we have far too much noncompliance, widespread noncompliance in some of the largest sectors,” and that “EPA is looking for new ways to catch violations as they occur,” Jaffe notes that the Agency’s first overture to more citizen group involvement may be seen in its recent update to ECHO, its online enforcement database.
Continue Reading EPA’s Future Enforcement Strategy: More Citizen Suits?