Cert Petition For Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load

As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Power Plan litigation takes center stage, another major case involving cooperative federalism—or, perhaps more accurately stated, another case involving a dispute as to what constitutes cooperative federalism—is on the doorstep of the U.S. Supreme Court. In a Petition for Writ of Certiorari filed in November, 2015, the American Farm Bureau Federation and other petitioners asked the Supreme Court to review the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upholding the Chesapeake Bay TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) promulgated by EPA pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). The Petition for Certiorari argues that "EPA's power grab has distorted the federal-state balance that Congress sought to preserve in the CWA." Respondents, in their January 19, 2016 briefs in opposition, stress that the Chesapeake Bay TMDL was not imposed on the Bay states by EPA, but was instead negotiated and supported by those