Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin’s legal group is suing the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain documents pertaining to the regulations the agency plans to implement after the election.
Levin’s law firm, the Landmark Legal Foundation, filed the lawsuit in federal court this week, seeking a court order directing the EPA to preserve and produce all records related to the agency’s regulatory plans after the presidential election.
The suit argues that news stories and political observers have indicated the EPA is “intentionally delaying the issuance of controversial new regulations until after the November election” with the possibility that “a) the Obama Administration is improperly politicizing EPA activities; b) EPA officials are attempting to shield their true policy goals from the public; and/or c) EPA officials themselves are putting partisan interests above the public welfare.”
In August, Landmark, via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, sought all the records dealing with rules and regulations from Jan. 1 to Aug. 17, 2012 that have not been finalized. The EPA acknowledged receipt of the request in August, but denied the group’s request to expedite the process.
Landmark appealed the denial, the EPA again refused to expedite the process this week.
“So today the EPA turned it down, we had a lawsuit ready to go because we knew they would turn it down, and we sued them,” Levin said Monday on his radio show.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, released a report last week on the regulations he expects the EPA will implement after the election. The senator told The Daily Caller that he appreciated the challenge to the agency.
“I welcome Mark [Levin]’s ongoing work to expose the Obama-EPA regulatory agenda currently hidden until after Election Day. Last week I released a report exposing the regulatory onslaught that the Obama-EPA has punted on until after the election,” Inhofe said. “These job-crushing regulations that will soon be unleashed will cripple our economy and put millions more out of work. No wonder the Obama-EPA has ‘earned a reputation for abuse,’ as the Washington Post editorial recently put it.”
The EPA did not respond to TheDC’s request for comment by deadline.
