A lower court lacked the power to toss a Trump-era water rule that limited state and tribal authority to determine certain federally approved projects could pollute waters, the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday.
Several states, environmental groups, and tribes sued the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming that the 2020 Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule unlawfully restricted states’ and tribes’ ability to reject water pollution projects. The US District Court for the Northern District of California agreed, and vacated the rule in 2021.
A panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that the lower court ...