The fight against EPA abuse has many fronts

This week a lot of attention has been given to Sackett v. EPA, and deservedly so. But PLF has many other cases challenging EPA overreach, among them Board of Mississippi Levee Commissioners v. EPA, now pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In this case, EPA excercised its power under the Clean Water Act to veto the Yazoo Project, a much needed flood control project in the South Mississippi Delta. Not only was EPA’s veto bad policy, it directly violated Congress’s 1983 decision to exempt the Yazoo Project from EPA’s veto.

That latter issue is now before the Fifth Circuit, which recently calendared PLF’s appeal for oral argument in New Orleans on February 9, 2012. I’ll be arguing the case along with my co-counsel from the Levee Board.  Let’s hope that the Fifth Circuit shows as much circumspection of the EPA’s position at oral argument as the Justices did in Sackett this week.