A pillar of environmental enforcement is targeted by Trump and Musk's AI company
Oh, marvellous. Just when you thought environmental enforcement couldn't get any more imaginative, Elon Musk's AI company has teamed up with right-leaning legal activists to dismantle the citizen suit — the private right to drag polluters into court when the state can't be bothered. The Washington Post reports this pillar of environmental enforcement is now in the crosshairs, which is a bit like removing the brakes from a lorry because the driver finds them annoying. Several major laws, presumably including the ones that keep rivers from catching fire, are suddenly up for grabs.
The argument, as ever, is a thing of rare beauty: private groups shouldn't be allowed to sue to enforce the rules because that is apparently the government's job — a government that has spent the past several years actively defunding the very agencies tasked with doing it. So the enforcement burden falls on citizens, and the moment citizens get good at it, a coalition of convenience emerges to declare them a nuisance. Musk's AI company, naturally, is busy optimising the future, and what is a little ecological collateral damage compared to the glorious efficiency of letting polluters self-regulate? The activists call it standing; the rest of us might call it the legal equivalent of handing the fox the keys to the henhouse.
Of course, none of this will be framed as 'let's ensure the rivers stay filthy' — it will be wrapped in the language of judicial restraint, textualism, and 'who are these random citizens to interfere with commerce?' But the effect is deliciously predictable: fewer lawsuits, dirtier water, and a legal precedent that says the public's right to enforce the law exists only at the pleasure of those who'd rather not be enforced upon. The AI company's involvement is the cherry on top, because nothing says 'aligning artificial intelligence with human values' quite like undermining the mechanism that keeps humans alive. Expect a ruling within the decade that simultaneously celebrates the rule of law and renders it unenforceable. Do have a lovely day.