SCOTUS gets halfway pro-environmentalist

And on a Clean Water Act case, no less, and with two conservatives — Roberts and Kavanaugh — joining the four Dems for a 6-3 ruling on County of Maui. This Texas ag lawyer's state Extension site blog has some excellent takes.

Given today's court tenor, especially, this is surely the best that can be expected.

Re the three dissenters, yes, the Supreme Court does sometimes make law.

Contra the three dissenters, this is nothing new. Statutory rules of regulatory agencies can't anticipate in advance every issue and, as the majority notes, if they tried to, they would set themselves up for evasion by loopholes.

The functional equivalent standard sounds reasonable, as long as future courts don't erode it. This court held that a functional equivalent DID exist in this case. (Oh, so much for all of Hawaii being pristine environmentalists, eh?) That said, let's note Roberts' joining the majority on Obamacare to set up a tool for later carve-outs.

Anyway, the case was remanded, presumably back to the district court level. But, with time and distance being the big standards, and given the district court's original ruling, I can't but see that it will hold for the environmental plaintiffs again and that the appeals court would refuse a new appeal.

EPA about to be a political sellout again

Don't be at all surprised if the EPA's final report on fracking water quality and needed regulation is more watered down than what it's supposed to regulate.

When even a Carol Browner favors giving the oil and gas industry pretty much of a pass on this issue, you know that the deal is in the bag. And, with that said, you know that serious U.S. stances on global warming by "serious insiders" aren't going to get better in the future.

So, if Al Armandirez here in Texas makes too, too much of a stuck, EPA may put him on a short leash.

Not-so-clean coal = dirty water

The smokestack scrubbers on coal-fired electric power plants use a water spray as part of the process. Guess what happens to that water?

Hint: Coal-fired power plants are now the No. 1 source of toxic waste. With that water.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency remains asleep at the switch, and its parallel state agencies are often toothless.

Read the full story to see what might be getting dumped into your water. And, how your state regulators may not only be toothless, but may want to remain toothless.

A green victory over Big Ag chemicals

Last month, a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said commercial pesticide applicators Clean Water Act point source permit, a HUGE win against Big Ag, and part of a recent trend. As Felice Pace notes, the Supreme Court has already let stand a Ninth Circuit ruling that requires spraying buffers along salmon streams.

So, this may be appealed to the full Sixth Circuit, but it probably won’t go beyond there to SCOTUS. And, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee, the bailiwick of the Sixth Circuit, ain’t exactly the heart of environmentalism, unlike the Ninth Circuit’s area, which makes this win all the bigger.

Pace also wonders if the timber industry, especially out in that Ninth Circuit area, will see the handwriting on the wall. If it doesn’t, and doesn’t ink some sort of negotiated settlement, your next lawsuit is coming.