AG Watch

In September 2005, AG Watch described the mess of chickens and litigation moving between Oklahoma and Arkansas. The situation has only deteriorated since then. Both sides have lawyered up and the interest group moneyfights have begun in earnest.

However, recent news items have captured one phoenix that seems to be rising from the smolder: as interstate environmental litigation proliferates, even the aggressors have started to appreciate the benefits of one national rule for interstate issues.

In a recent Stories That Matter piece, Oklahoma’s AG Drew Edmonson, the bearer of the suits against Arkansas chicken farmers, says of the interstate environmental suits, “This is a national problem, and there really should be a national solution applied equally to everyone.”

In the Washington Post’s full account of the ArkLahoma battle, New York’s Eliot Spitzer—himself no slouch at suing out-of-state for environmental causes—confessed, “Long term, states cannot supplant the role of the federal government in addressing these issues,” he said.

Of course, these AGs have their own environmental policy preferences in mind when they suggest a national fix, but the fact of their mutual emphasis on a national standard for interstate concerns signals (hopefully) the beginning of the end of states’ Attorneys’ General extraterritorial romp across the U.S. Or perhaps AG Watch has set our hopes a little too high.