The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), which represents the heads of state environment departments, has launched a new grants program that seeks to ensure that state priorities are recognized in the annual agreements they sign with EPA.
States often make environmental programs a priority in their annual planning documents but those priorities do not "see the light of day in the federal document," according to one state source. "That's the main complaint" with the state-EPA priority-setting and planning process, the source says.