Agency Budget Cuts And What Environmental Lawyers Do

Like many, I have been reflecting on how the changes going on now in the federal government affect environmental practice. Two things that affect what environmental lawyers (as opposed to environmental engineers or managers) do seem to have received less attention than one might have expected: the loss of resources at federal and state environmental regulatory agencies limit those agencies' ability to consider creative solutions to regulatory or enforcement problems and the limitations on data collection and scientific analysis undermine the confidence necessary to approve those creative solutions. These developments affect the tools and strategies that environmental lawyers can use to achieve their clients' objectives and may call for some adjustments in how we do what we do.