Editors' Summary: A string of recent cases, mostly out of the D.C. Circuit, have held that under many environmental statutes, a court could grant attorneys fees to a losing party whose participation substantially furthered the purposes of the statute. The Supreme Court, reversing the D.C. Circuit in Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, put an end to grants to non-prevailing parties. The five-member majority hewed closely to traditional notions of fee shifting. The four-member dissent found an intent in the statutes to abandon the traditional rules. The author argues that in suits involving policy decisions, success on the merits is a poor measure of the public benefit a party's participation confers. Congress should consider revising the fee provisions to encourage participation in the public interest.