Articles

Author: Brandon Middleton I'm sure much will be said in response to Judge Wanger's decision to enjoin the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's X2 action.  And given the length and complexity of the court's opinion, there's no way one blog post could highlight every significant aspect of today's decision.  He ...

Author: Brandon Middleton John Bass accuses Judge Wanger of demanding "an impossibly high scientific standard" to justify the location of X2 (the italicized language is Bass's quoting of the Kern Valley Sun): In yesterday’s injunction, Judge Wanger ruled the 2008 biological opinion still "fails to explain why it is essentia ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Yesterday, NRDC made three significant filings relating to Judge Wanger's decision last week to enjoin the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from fully implementing its fall X2 action.  First, NRDC appealed the decision and injunction.  Second, it requested that Judge Wanger issue a "stay of the Court ...

Author: Brandon Middleton John Bass offers a reply to my earlier post: Brandon Middleton's response to my post about Judge Wanger’s last decision is titled "Trust us, we’re federal scientists." Why not make the title "Trust us, we’re scientists"? Seems to answer itself. Not really.  The federal govern ...

Author: Brandon Middleton The federal government has joined NRDC in appealing last week's X2 decision.  The feds' appeal was filed last night and was accompanied by a motion for a stay of the injunction and a memorandum in support of the motion for a stay. It is unclear at this point how this latest filing … ...

Author: Brandon Middleton The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, Kern County Water Agency, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, State Water Contractors, San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, and Westlands Water District just filed this opposition to NRDC's motion for a stay of Judge Wanger's injunction of the U.S. Fis ...

Author: Brandon Middleton From the Senator's press release: "It is increasingly clear to me that key biological opinions done by the Department of the Interior are not based on sound science. "Judge Wanger found that the department's proposal to release hundreds of thousands of acre feet of water in the hopes of identifying the id ...

Author: Brandon Middleton This afternoon Judge Wanger declined to rule on the recent requests by the federal government and NRDC for a stay of the court's injunction of the delta smelt Fall X2 action pending appeal. The court in particular wanted to provide the plaintiffs with an adequate opportunity to respond to information submitted in R ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Some good background at the Bay Delta Blog, with more to come apparently. … ...