According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office ($ub. req’d), the Dept. of Defense has not yet made a good case for why it should be exempt from a suite of federal environmental laws. To hear the GAO tell it, in fact, the DOD has thrown out a bunch of broad claims without doing any real analysis or citing any actual cases where environmental laws have constrained effective operations. Says the report:

… the department has not provided any specific examples to support its assertions that these activities have been hampered by requirements of the Clean Air Act, RCRA or CERCLA, respectively. DOD also has not provided any of the other elements of a sound business case.

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Gosh. Who woulda thunk it?

For more on military requests for environmental exemptions, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.

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