Giving Compass' Take:

• Yvette Cabrera reports that environmental groups are responding to the EPA's rollback of environmental protections during COVID-19 with a lawsuit. 

• How can funders support efforts to maintain environmental protections during the pandemic? 

• Read about states suing the EPA over vehicle emission standards. 

Shortly after the EPA’s March 26 announcement that it would relax enforcement of the country’s environmental protection laws due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a coalition of environmental groups called on the agency to publish an emergency rule. That rule would require polluters taking advantage of the relaxed standards to submit written notice to the EPA. The petition also called on the EPA to make that information public.

The groups say that the EPA ignored their request. Now, the coalition is taking the agency to court.

The Natural Resources Defense Council announced Thursday that it is suing the EPA on behalf of a coalition of nearly two dozen environmental justice, climate, and public interest groups. The coalition is asking the court to intervene and procure an EPA response to their petition proposing the emergency rule.

Read the full article about the EPA's coronavirus response by Yvette Cabrera at Grist.