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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every

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Speaker 1: day we bring you insight and analysis into the most

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Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more

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Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,

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Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcasts. Will the environment

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Speaker 1: benefit from Democratic attorneys general who rode a blue wave

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Speaker 1: into office? The new ages could do a u turn

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Speaker 1: on lawsuits by the Republican predecessors which challenge tighter federal

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Speaker 1: environmental regulations. Joining me is Richard Rivez, a professor at

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Speaker 1: n y U Law School and director of the Institute

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Speaker 1: for Policy Integrity. Richard first explained the kinds of environmental

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Speaker 1: lawsuits that Republican ages have brought in the past few years.

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Speaker 1: Were extremely active during the Obama administration, primarily in the

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Speaker 1: environmental area, challenging the big ticket regulation and that the

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Speaker 1: Obama administration put in place with respect to greenhouse gases,

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Speaker 1: has this, air pollutants and other matters. That effort was led,

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Speaker 1: among others, by Scott Pruitt when he was the Attorney

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Speaker 1: general of Oklahoma and UH and those efforts continued throughout

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Speaker 1: the Obama administration. Now Democrats won four a G seats

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Speaker 1: from Republicans in Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin. In what

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Speaker 1: states could that make a difference for environmental lawsuits? I

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Speaker 1: can make a difference everywhere. Democratic attorneys general have been

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Speaker 1: challenging actions of the Trump administration, just like the Republican

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Speaker 1: counterparts that challenged actions of the Obama administration. So they've

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Speaker 1: challenged efforts to suspend, delay, and stay Obama administration regulations,

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Speaker 1: and then more recently are involved in the ongoing efforts

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Speaker 1: to repeal and roll back regulations. So this is going

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Speaker 1: to add more states to the mix. They're already for

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Speaker 1: many of these cases, fift twenty attorneys general involved in

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Speaker 1: the litigation against the Trump administration, and now they are

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Speaker 1: likely to be more. So that's one general way in

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Speaker 1: which this is going to make a difference, but also

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Speaker 1: with respect to specific things in a particular state, having

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Speaker 1: an attorney general who can be involved the significance. So,

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Speaker 1: for example, if there is a dispute about the use

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Speaker 1: of federal cold in Colorado, having a Democratic Attorney general

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Speaker 1: in Colorado is going to means that litigation is going

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Speaker 1: to look different then it would have looked before the election.

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Speaker 1: When there was a Republican attorney general. Are lawsuits the

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Speaker 1: right way to make or change policy for the environment, Well,

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Speaker 1: policies are changed for regulation. But these days we live

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Speaker 1: in this very contentious world in which every major regulation

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Speaker 1: is challenged. Um, it's either going to be challenged by

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Speaker 1: democratic Attorney's General or Republican Attorney's general, by environmental national

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Speaker 1: environmental organizations, or by the US Chamber of Commerce. So

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Speaker 1: in the first instance, the policy is made through regulation

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Speaker 1: by the subtle government, also by state governments. But then

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Speaker 1: everything of significance ends up being litigated and the courts

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Speaker 1: end up deciding whether the regulation is valid or not.

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Speaker 1: Whether this is a good thing or not is a

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Speaker 1: big topic. But it is the world we live in,

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Speaker 1: and that's not like you change anytime soon. Is there

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Speaker 1: any danger with new ages just dropping out of cases

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Speaker 1: or reversing course for a state, Any reason why they

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Speaker 1: shouldn't do that in certain cases, No, they absolutely should

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Speaker 1: do that. I mean these are very significant positions. They

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Speaker 1: often ran for office saying that they now um that

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Speaker 1: what they want to do is oppose the efforts of

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Speaker 1: the Trump administration to all back environmental standards and others,

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Speaker 1: and they absolutely should do what they promised the voters

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Speaker 1: they will do. And this causes no harm at all

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Speaker 1: because in all of these cases they already are democratic

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Speaker 1: attorney's general involved. And so the question is, we'll go

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Speaker 1: from having fifteen people challenging fifteen attorneys general challenging a

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Speaker 1: Trump administration regulation to having nineteen are going will go

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Speaker 1: from eighteen to twenty two? This is going to cause

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Speaker 1: no hardship to anyone. UM, It's the way this world works.

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Speaker 1: And in part, these attorneys general were elected precisely because

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Speaker 1: they expressed their strong opposition to the policies of the

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Speaker 1: Trump administration and their desire to challenge them. And that's

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Speaker 1: precisely what they should do now. Republican legislatures in North Carolina, Wisconsin,

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Speaker 1: Michigan responded to Democrats taking over the state House by

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Speaker 1: moving the limit the power of the governors or the

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Speaker 1: ages to represent the state in court. Will that work?

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Speaker 1: And is that right? Well? I don't think that UM.

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Speaker 1: Responding to an election in which UM, a democratic government

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Speaker 1: earner or democratic attorney general is elected by having a

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Speaker 1: Republican legislature cut the powers from what they had historically

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Speaker 1: been is the right approach. UM, That is definitely the

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Speaker 1: right approach. That can only really happen in states where

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Speaker 1: there is divided control between the legislature UH and the

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Speaker 1: executive branch, and there are a few states for which

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Speaker 1: that's the case. UM. I think those have been bad

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Speaker 1: developments and they and then they're gonna end up being

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Speaker 1: challenged in court and state court as matters of state laws.

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Speaker 1: So we don't quite yet know, um what the answer

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Speaker 1: with the ultimate answer to those efforts will be. It

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Speaker 1: seems like Congress should be the one updating and revising

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Speaker 1: the environmental laws. When was the last time that Congress

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Speaker 1: made a serious effort to do that. The last really

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Speaker 1: significant effort were the amendments of the Clean Air Act. UM.

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Speaker 1: There's been some more recent efforts, including the Loudenberg Act,

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Speaker 1: amended the Toxic Substance Control Act, which is quite recent.

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Speaker 1: There were amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act in

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Speaker 1: but generally is seen as the last really comprehensive effort

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Speaker 1: by Congress. The next one would have been a Waxman

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Speaker 1: Marquis the effort to have a national cap and trade

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Speaker 1: scheme for greenhouse gases. Thanks Richard. That's Richard Revez, a

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Speaker 1: professor at m y U Law School. Thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen

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Speaker 1: to the show on Apple podcast, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso. This is Bloomberg