How the Trump administration is blocking the public’s right to protect the environment

For more than 50 years, citizen suits have been an effective part of cleaning up the environment in the U.S.

A citizen-initiated lawsuit under the Clean Air Act forced a cleanup at ExxonMobil’s Baytown, Texas, refinery and chemical complex. [Photo: Antranik Tavitian/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Reducing rampant pollution across the United States was so important that when Congress passed many environmental protection laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, it didn’t want to leave enforcement only to the executive branch.

Congress specifically wrote into those laws ways for citizens to enforce them through the........

© Fast Company