AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced May 19 that his office sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking the agency to suspend, review and reconsider Obama-era EPA regulations that Texas challenged in 12 lawsuits.
These cases are all still pending, and Paxton sent the letter after EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt requested comments.
“The previous administration was unwilling to engage with most states, and took actions or issued rules ignoring the spirit of cooperative federalism embodied in the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act,” Paxton’s office stated in the letter.
Paxton wants Pruitt to restore greater cooperation between states and the federal government when it comes to environmental regulations. His letter, which includes 110 pages of supporting documents, says Texas took legal action against EPA because many of its rules are unlawful, arbitrary and capricious, unnecessary or ineffective, and impose costs that exceed benefits.
Some of the lawsuits are currently suspended but others are underway. Paxton asks that “[rather] than have Texas and other petitioners continue to incur legal expenses and costs to challenge regulations that should be reevaluated, EPA should direct the Department of Justice to abate these matters pending further review of each rule.”