Environmental Settlement Tool’s Reboot Leaves Target on its Back

A popular tool brought back by the Biden administration is expected to fuel future legal challenges for the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency in their shared enforcement of anti-pollution laws.

Supplemental environmental projects, or SEPs, are theoretically back on the negotiating table after the acting head of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division last month tossed a stack of 2020 memos that narrowed options for resolving cases.

But government lawyers have reported internal hesitance about using SEPs, and at least one conservative legal group already has them in its crosshairs. Many attorneys think ...