EPA plays "Russian Roulette" with property owners

October 17, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Damien M. Schiff

Last week, PLF clients Mike and Chantell Sackett and I appeared on the Lou Dobbs Fox Business show to discuss the Sacketts' testimony at a Congressional roundtable on EPA abuse hosted by Senator Rand Paul.  As evidence of EPA abuse, I discussed some internal EPA documents that General Electric Co. had obtained through court-ordered discovery, dealing with how EPA's trains its enforcement officers to issue compliance orders.  I frankly was shocked by what I read (the documents were included in the US Chamber of Commerce's amicus brief submitted in support of the Sacketts).  "EPA actually trains its personnel to make the terms of unilateral orders 'ugly, onerous, and tough'" and 'very unpleasant,' in order to coerce settlement. . . .  EPA's internal documents further confirm that EPA seeks to threaten recipients with games of 'Russian Roulette,' so as to further coerce their entry into 'voluntary decrees.'"