ECOS Warns New EPA Approach Bars Groups From Agency Meetings

The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), the group that represents state environmental commissioners, is warning that EPA is using a new interpretation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) to justify excluding the group's staff and those of other national organizations from meetings with the agency to discuss water, climate change, energy and other issues. In a Nov. 17 letter to Scott Fulton, EPA's acting deputy administrator, ECOS claims that the agency is implementing a "new practice" of excluding...