If the Bush administration withdraws from Clinton-era pollution lawsuits against power plants in the Midwest and South, Northeast states that also sued the plants will have a hard time continuing with the cases. The states don’t have the resources of the federal government, and they would have trouble building cases against plants more than 400 miles away. Enviros are skeptical that the administration will pursue any enforcement actions aggressively, now that President Bush has nominated Donald Schregardus to be the EPA’s chief enforcement officer. As Ohio’s top environmental enforcement officer, Schregardus clashed with then-New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, arguing against a smog-reduction plan she favored.
