EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman, who resigned in February, explained to Congress on Tuesday that “during the summer and fall of 2015 the Region 5 Flint team actively evaluated and reevaluated the enforcement options available.”  But she chose not to intervene in September because she worried that the Michigan Attorney General might sue the agency.  When have legal risks ever stopped the EPA?

The Wall Street Journal has a valid question.  But both the editorial staff and the EPA ignore another matter: the publicity of a Michigan AG lawsuit against the EPA would have resulted in a high level of public oversight of the EPA, of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and of Flint’s tap water.