EPA, Environmentalists Split Over Bid To Consolidate Cooling Water Suits

摘要

EPA and environmentalists are split over industry's bid to consolidate litigation over the agency's Clean Water Act (CWA) ruling for cooling water intake structures with advocates' suit over federal wildlife officials' review of the rule's impacts on endangered species, with EPA backing the move but advocates seeking to keep the cases separate. The utility industry has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to put litigation over the CWA rule on hold until the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California either rules on the merits of a case it is hearing over the wildlife officials' biological opinion (BiOp) on the rule or transfers the case to the appellate court and consolidates it with the suit over the rule, Cooling Water Intake Structure Coalition (CWISC) v. EPA.