Decisions of the day. Today, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in Bering Straits Citizens for Responsible Resource Development v. US Army Corps of Engineers, affirming the permissibility of the Army Corps' decision to grant a Clean Water Act permit to an open-pit gold mine near Nome, Alaska that will result in the loss of 170 acres of wetlands. The permit belatedly (i.e. after suit had already been filed in district court) took into account criticisms of the original permit decision by the EPA and the US Fish & Wildlife Service, but stopped short of fully taking into consideration all feasible alternatives.

California suing EPA for denial of CAA waiver. As the New York Times reports here, California brought a suit yesterday (January 2) in the Ninth Circuit in California challenging EPA's December 19 (2007) denial of California's waiver request under section 209 of the Clean Air Act that would have allowed California to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases. (A description of the regulations can be seen here.) The decision, announced just one day after the new Energy bill was signed into law, was timed so that the Administration could claim, in essence, that the federal government was already acting to curb greenhouse gas emissions, so California need not. The denial is the first ever full denial by the EPA of a waiver request from California. (So much for states' rights and deference to states on managing their natural resources).

To view California's petition for review, in which it was joined by 15 other states (Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) and several environmental organizations, including NRDC, Environmental Defense, the Conservation Law Foundation, and the Sierra Club, click here. The petition charges that the EPA did not make sufficient findings to deny California's waiver request.