Brightbill Says New DOJ Rule May Block Biden Bid To Quickly Undo SEP Ban

Jonathan Brightbill, the Justice Department’s (DOJ) outgoing environment chief, says the incoming Biden administration cannot easily revoke the Trump DOJ’s ban on popular supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) and other settlements involving payments to third parties, in part because the bans were recently codified into DOJ rules. “Contrary to public opinions rendered in this area uniformly, including from Congress, SEPs were [never] lawful, yet at some point in time, DOJ and EPA began doing them and using them . . ...