Amid a significant loss of experienced environmental lawyers at the Department of Justice (DOJ), concerns are growing that the government may lack the capacity to robustly defend the Trump administration’s sweeping Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deregulatory agenda in court. As a result, industry groups, trade associations and private firms are preparing to play a larger role in supporting those policies through litigation, stepping in to fill what some see as a widening gap in federal legal resources.
Bracewell’s Jeff Holmstead, who served as EPA’s air chief under former President George W. Bush, told E&E News that he expects to file briefs in support of Trump administration policies that align with his clients’ interests.
While that isn’t new, he said, “those briefs may, may be a bit more important now, if DOJ and EPA don’t have the same kind of firepower that they’ve had in the past.”
