States

The Obama administration appears to have started a complex process of asking district courts across the nation — beginning in North Dakota on Tuesday — to halt proceedings over the controversial Clean Water Rule (CWR), thereby giving the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth District in Cincinnati time to decide whether it has jurisdiction over a multitude of legal challenges.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth District in Cincinnati on Friday blocked implementation nationwide of the controversial U.S. Water Rule from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

A North Dakota federal district judge on Friday limited to 13 states an injunction he approved late last month against the Obama administration’s proposed expansion of the scope of the federal Clean Water Act.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is offering states $10 million in competitive grants to improve railroad track and highway-rail crossings.

A North Dakota federal district judge on Thursday blocked the Obama administration’s proposed expansion of the scope of the federal Clean Water Act, calling the proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “exceptionally expansive.” A preliminary injunction sought by 13 states was granted.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a stay on a rule in its Clean Power Plan (CPP) pertaining to power generation, on the grounds that it would harm how the state handles electricity and would lead to higher costs and reliability concerns.

Fifteen states — led by West Virginia and including several oil and gas heavyweights — have filed an emergency petition in federal court, urging it to postpone the deadlines set forth earlier this month by the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP).

House Republicans blasted the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its proposed rule to regulate hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on federal and tribal lands, calling it “outrageous” and a “national embarrassment” had it not been blocked by a court, as Democrats were split over whether the measure was a “modest modernization” or “too weak.”

A dozen states have joined a lawsuit against federal rules clarifying and expanding the reach of the Clean Water Act (CWA) that were published Monday in the Federal Register, asking for the rules to be remanded to federal agencies for reworking.