EPA, Environmentalists At Odds Over Ruling Tightening Ash Disposal Rule

摘要

EPA and environmentalists are pushing competing interpretations of the appellate order that scrapped key exemptions in the Obama-era coal ash disposal rule for being too weak, as both sides seek a new decision from the court on whether it meant to order the immediate closure of disposal sites that cannot meet the rule without the waivers. In a pair of competing reply briefs filed Feb. 9 in Waterkeeper Alliance, et al, v. Andrew Wheeler, et al., environmental groups and the agency set out their readings on what will happen if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit immediately forces EPA into compliance with the court's order from 2018. The unanimous ruling threw out provisions in the disposal rule allowing ash impoundments that lack protective "composite" liners to keep operating until they leak.