01 Nov, 2024 EPA's Most Recent Draft NPDES General Permit Could Earn It Another Trip to the Supreme Court By Jeff Porter Sam Hess of Inside EPA and many others are writing about EPA's Halloween Trick or Treat – the publication of a draft Clean Water Act...
16 Oct, 2024 Justice Kagan, if "some people like less prescriptive standards" why haven't any members of the regulated community said so in San Francisco v. EPA? By Jeff Porter Today the United States Supreme Court heard from lawyers representing the City and County of San Francisco and lawyers for the United...
03 Jun, 2024 A Louisiana Judge may strike down another EPA Clean Water Act regulation and the Supreme Court would likely see it the same way. By Jeff Porter Several “red” states and three energy industry NGOs have filed a motion for summary judgment in their Louisiana Federal Court challenge...
28 May, 2024 Life's tragedy is we get old too soon and wise too late. Words that are going to be ringing in EPA's ears after its next visit to the Supreme Court. By Jeff Porter As predicted in February, our nation's highest court is about to hear its third Clean Water Act in four years. Anyone who doubts the...
22 May, 2024 Clean Energy Developers Beware! EPA will prosecute you for runoff from your solar farm sites. By Jeff Porter EPA issued a press release yesterday that caught my eye and if you're in the business of building things, including solar projects, it is...
17 May, 2024 EPA's heart may be in the right place but it is cruisin' for a bruisin' in San Francisco By Jeff Porter This week our nation's highest court was scheduled to discuss whether to hear the City and County of San Francisco's appeal of a split...
16 Apr, 2024 Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco but the City's appeal of its NPDES permit is on its way to the United States Supreme Court By Jeff Porter Juan-Carlos Rodriguez is reporting on DOJ's and EPA's brief arguing that the Supreme Court should leave alone a split Ninth Circuit...
27 Feb, 2024 The City and County of San Francisco are about to deliver EPA & the Ninth Circuit their 3rd consecutive Clean Water Act defeat in the Supreme Court By Jeff Porter The United States Supreme Court isn't done with the Clean Water Act and EPA's interpretation of it. This month the City and County of...
04 Jan, 2024 We already knew many Federal Judges weren't deferring to EPA, now the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals isn't deferring to Judges either. By Jeff Porter Just before the holidays I wrote about three Judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals who decided, over the Army Corps of Engineers'...
11 Dec, 2023 Oppenheimer isn't the only Los Alamos blockbuster this year. EPA has another one with its exercise of its Residual Designation Authority there! By Jeff Porter You may have thought the movie Oppenheimer would be the only blockbuster involving Los Alamos, New Mexico this year. But now EPA has...
06 Dec, 2023 Now a Federal Judge in Louisiana will determine the validity of EPA's interpretation of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act By Jeff Porter When EPA published its most recent rule specifying the role of States and Tribes in the Federal permitting of discharges into Waters of...
27 Nov, 2023 EPA's new Maui Functional Equivalence Guidance is guidance in name only as confusion continues to reign over the reach of the Clean Water Act By Jeff Porter Just before the Thanksgiving holiday EPA issued draft guidance regarding when a discharge of a “pollutant” to groundwater is the...
14 Sep, 2023 The Clean Water Act might now have a broader reach in States that challenged EPA's and the Corps' pre-Sackett WOTUS rule than in those that didn't. By Jeff Porter Sam Hess of Inside EPA reports that EPA and the Corps of Engineers are going to apply their tenth, post-Sackett, attempt to define Waters...
07 Sep, 2023 Soon we'll have EPA guidance responding to the Supreme Court's Maui decision, but it may not be much. By Jeff Porter The ever-vigilant Sam Hess of Inside EPA has posted an August presentation by an EPA official at the Association of Clean Water...
23 Aug, 2023 I guess it makes sense that the Navy would need a Clean Water Act permit to fire munitions if the Forest Service needs one to fight fires! By Jeff Porter Inside EPA is reporting that Potomac Riverkeeper and the United States Navy are discussing a settlement of the NGO's lawsuit alleging...
19 Jul, 2023 EPA made a mess exercising its Clean Water Act residual designation authority in MA. This week the Judge washed his hands of most of it for now. By Jeff Porter This week Massachusetts Federal District Court Judge Richard Stearns dismissed two counts of the Conservation Law Foundation's and...