Lawsuit claims EPA, U.S. Army Corps disregarded Supreme Court’s WOTUS ruling

Capital Press – March 18

A lawsuit challenging the federal government’s interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest ruling in Sackett v. EPA on waters of the United States, or WOTUS, was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The lawsuit challenges the “adjacent wetlands” provisions of an amended rule issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The lawsuit claims, among other alleged material defects, that the amended rule unlawfully omits Sackett’s “indistinguishable” requirement for wetlands to be subjected to federal regulatory authority and relies on various asserted “connections” through intervening non-jurisdictional features, connections that lack surface water and connections that are not continuous.

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California policy protecting major rivers upheld in long-awaited court decision

San Francisco Chronicle – March 18

The Bay-Delta Plan, a state policy designed to protect California’s major rivers and creeks by reducing diversions by cities and farms, can now move forward despite widespread opposition. The long-awaited decision, issued by Judge Stephen Acquisto of the Sacramento Superior Court, denies 116 claims in a dozen separate lawsuits that sought to undo a 2018 update to the policy. Most of the claims were brought by water agencies contending that the limits on their water draws went too far. The Bay-Delta Plan is intended, most fundamentally, to halt the decline of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Decades of over-pumping waterways have left less water flowing into the Delta, undermining the estuary’s ability to both supply water to communities and nurture wildlife, notably salmon runs.

Biden administration revs up plans to transition from gas-powered vehicles to EVs

Los Angeles Times – March 20

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced it had finalized the strongest-ever pollution standards for cars and light trucks. The EPA rule, which would begin taking effect with model year 2027, would require car manufacturers to increase sales of electric vehicles while cutting carbon emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, including in California. In many ways the federal rule follows the lead of California, which has been a pioneer in efforts to eliminate reliance on gasoline-powered cars. In 2022, regulators announced they would halt the sale of new gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035.

EPA to ban last form of asbestos used in U.S.

Reuters – March 19

EPA on Monday finalized a rule that would ban using and importing cancer-causing chrysotile asbestos, a material still used in some vehicles and in some industrial facilities in the U.S. The ban of chrysotile asbestos, the only form of asbestos currently used in or imported to the U.S., comes after EPA under the Trump administration delayed banning the substance. The substance has already been banned in more than 50 countries around the world, and its use in the U.S. has been in decline, with most consumer industries discontinuing its use.

Twenty Democratic attorneys general file motion in support of Biden methane rule

The Hill – March 19

Twenty Democratic state attorneys general on Monday filed a motion in defense of EPA’s oil and gas methane rule, challenging a lawsuit against the rule. Twenty-four GOP state attorneys general had sued over the rule last week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a separate challenge March 8 in response to a request from the Texas state Railroad Commission. In the counter-motion, the 20 Democratic attorneys general, led by California’s Rob Bonta, expressed support for the final EPA rule, which is the first to regulate methane emissions from existing fossil fuel facilities in addition to new and modified facilities.

Chevron ordered to pay more than $13 million in fines for oil spills in Kern County

San Francisco Chronicle – March 20

Chevron has agreed to pay more than $13 million in fines to two state agencies for oil spills in Kern County, including a 2019 spill of nearly 800,000 gallons of crude oil and water into a creek bed 35 miles west of Bakersfield. The company will pay $5.6 million to the state’s Department of Conservation for the 2019 spill and $7.5 million to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) for over 70 smaller spills that occurred in Kern County between 2018 and 2023, officials said Wednesday. The fine is the largest assessed by the Department of Conservation and the largest administrative fine assessed in DFW history, officials said.

California’s largest new reservoir project in 50 years gains momentum

The Mercury News – March 17

Last weekend, President Biden signed a package of bills that included $205 million in construction funding for the Sites Reservoir, a proposed $4.5 billion project planned about 70 miles north of Sacramento. The funding is the latest boost for the project, which has been discussed on and off since the 1950s. Plans call for Sites to be a vast off-stream reservoir 13 miles long, 4 miles wide and 260 feet deep that would store water diverted from the Sacramento River in wet years, for use by cities and farms around the state in dry years. If the project overcomes opposition and a lawsuit by environmental groups, the 1.5 million-acre-foot Sites Reservoir would be California’s eighth largest.