The Trump administration is asking a federal court to dismiss a
lawsuit by New Mexico and the Navajo Nation over a 2015 mine-waste spill
caused by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The Justice
Department filed a brief Monday arguing that the EPA, as a government
agency, has sovereign immunity because its workers and contractors were
trying to clean up the abandoned Gold King Mine when it caused the spill
in Colorado. The government is continuing the same argument of the Obama administration, which concluded
in January that the EPA was legally barred from paying out the $1.2
billion in claims from people, businesses, governments and others who
said they were harmed by the spill. Republicans and government representatives near the spill site slammed
the Obama administration for that decision, saying its response to the
incident was inadequate.“These claims against EPA ignore well-settled
law that [the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act] does not waive EPA’s sovereign immunity to suit when its
sole connection to the site at issue arises from exercising its
authority under CERCLA to respond to other entities’ legacy
contamination,” the Justice Department wrote to the federal court in New
Mexico...more
As you can see, it doesn't matter who is elected President, the government always protects the government.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Monday, February 13, 2017
Trump admin. - Just like Obama - wants Gold King Mine spill case dismissed
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1 comment:
Well then he should dismiss all cases and the authority of the EPA/ACE against American citizens for so-called violations of the CWA.
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