National News

Sentencing Case May Set Course for Clean Water Act Battles. “The next big Supreme Court decision affecting the scope of the Clean Water Act may come from an unlikely source: a plaintiff's fight to reduce a prison sentence for drug and weapons possession charges. On its face, the case currently pending at the Supreme Court asks justices to resolve whether criminal plaintiffs can request lighter prison sentences in response to changes in federal sentencing guidelines. But Hughes v. United States also centers on how lower courts interpret fractured Supreme Court decisions in which five of the court's nine justices fail to come to an agreement. Some experts think the court's answer could provide some clarity on an issue that has muddied water law and policy for more than a decade: How should lower courts and the federal government interpret Rapanos v. United States, an infamously murky 2006 decision on Clean Water Act jurisdiction?” [E&E News, 2/6/18 (=)]

States Sue EPA over Clean Water Rule Delay. “Ten states and a coalition of environmental groups sued the Trump administration for suspending a 2015 rule that was billed as a long-overdue update to the definition of lakes, rivers and wetlands designed to improve protection under the Clean Water Act of 1972. The attorneys general from 10 states and the District of Columbia accused the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of violating federal law by delaying the Obama administration’s ‘Clean Water Rule’ for another two years. The move was part of President Donald Trump’s promise to slash regulations.” [Bloomberg, 2/6/18 (=)]