SCOTUS Maui Ruling Ripples Through Pipeline, Power Plant Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that some indirect water pollution requires federal permits triggered renewed debate this week in legal battles over power plants and pipelines.

In an Illinois case, environmentalists argued Wednesday that the high court’s pivotal Clean Water Act decision in County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund means their own claims about coal ash pollution should advance. On the East Coast, meanwhile, industry lawyers sparred with environmental lawyers over whether the Maui standard applies in their pipeline rupture case.

The disagreements highlight the broad but unsettled implications of the Supreme Court’s April ruling, which said indirect ...