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This study examines factors that explain the structure of a regulatory policy with a particular focus on how distrust plays a role in shaping the structure of a regulatory policy network. Understanding the mechanisms that explain the structure of policy networks has been an important subject in the era of collaboration. However, previous research have almost exclusively studied network structures in the context of social service policies. Little is known about what factors explain network structures in the context of regulatory policies where policy decision-making processes end up being challenged in court or the competing groups tend to manipulate scientific information to gain an advantage in regulatory policymaking debates.