INSIDE EPA: States urge Ohio district court to block Obama-era CWA rule enforcement
GOP-led states challenging the 2015 Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule are calling on a federal district court in Ohio to quickly block enforcement of the standard within the states’ borders despite arguments to the contrary from the Trump administration, Democratic states and environmentalists, on both procedural and substantive grounds.
The Aug. 6 brief by the states of Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee argues that none of their opponents in the case now pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio have raised a credible defense for the Obama-era CWA rule, and therefore the court should grant their request for an injunction against it.
“With preliminary injunction briefing here now concluded, the specific critiques of the Rule’s overreach as set forth by Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee are barely contested and are in no way rebutted,” the states say.
The three states suing over the CWA rule in Ohio, et al., v. EPA, et al., are among a host of state and industry plaintiffs seeking court orders that would forbid any enforcement of the Obama administration’s standard for determining when waters are subject to the law, even if it comes back into force despite EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers delaying its “applicability date” until 2020.
