EPA Faces Push-Back On Bid To Sideline CWA Rule Merits In Litigation

摘要

Environmentalists and states are renewing their attacks on EPA's refusal to consider the merits of the 2015 Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule in suits that target both the rule itself and the delay on its enforcement, urging courts to reject the administration's claims that the legality of the Obama-era standard is irrelevant until its final repeal.In newly filed briefs Republican-led states challenging the Obama-era rule as well as environmental groups and Democratic-led states trying to bring it back into force all focus on the merits of the 2015 policy, arguing that EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers are wrong to say that their pending repeal proposal justifies sidelining any consideration of the original rule's merits, whether in litigation or the administrative process that established the enforcement delay. Relevant documents are available on lnsideEPA.com. (Doc. ID: 214006)"While they may not like the outcome, it is a decision on the merits here - and not months or years of additional rulemaking proceedings - that will introduce the certainty the Agencies claim to seek," the GOP state plaintiffs argue in a July 30 filing in North Dakota, et at., v. EPA, et al., filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota.