COURT QUERY IN CHEVRON SUIT PROMPTS EPA DEFENSE OF REFINERY PACTS

EPA and the Justice Department (DOJ) have issued new explanations of an environmental settlement with Chevron that provides a broad defense of the agency's negotiation of comprehensive air pollution limitation agreements with refiners under its long running Clean Air Act enforcement initiative. The government's explanations provide what several attorneys say is a highly unusual window into the EPA negotiating strategy, including the rationale behind its decisions to negotiate broad settlements that may include concessions to industry, while limiting investigations into...