"Environment May Not Be Top Priority for Sessions: Attorneys"

"Jeff Sessions has voted regularly against environmental-protection legislation as a longtime senator, a record that makes attorneys and advocates wonder how he will enforce environmental laws if he’s confirmed this week as attorney general.

The Alabama Republican has voted along with the views of the League of Conservation Voters only 7 percent of the time since he entered the Senate in 1997. Recently, for example, he voted in 2015 to kill a rule setting greenhouse gas standards for new and modified power plants (vetoed by President Barack Obama) and in 2012 against a rule that would limit coal-fired power plants’ hazardous air pollutant emissions.

Environmental attorneys, advocates and former justice department environmental prosecutors interviewed by Bloomberg BNA said that while it’s hard to predict environmental enforcement under the Trump administration, some possible changes ahead include fewer criminal and civil cases, a redirection of some of the work of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and less attention to environmental justice. "

Renee Schoof reports for Bloomberg BNA's Daily Environment Report February 6, 2017.