The executive, and specifically the DoJ, has significant discretion to abstain from trying court cases. But regulatory agencies are a different matter. More importantly, in this context it would seem the EPA would be affirmativelyapproving projects without following the legally required process. I'm not sure what kind of discretion regulatory agencies have in completely abstaining from undertaking some action, but AFAIU they definitely don't enjoy much discretion to simply ignore the rules once they take that first step; not unless there's other legislation that gives them an escape hatch.
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