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ARTICLE · 28 JUNE 2021

Hope Is Not A Strategy When It Comes To Fixing The Clean Water Act

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
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Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

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Bloomberg News reports this morning that the Justice Department has now done in California what it did in Massachusetts a few weeks ago, asking a Federal Court to end litigation challenging...

United StatesEnvironment
Jeffrey Porter
Jeffrey Porter
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Bloomberg News reports this morning that the Justice Department has now done in California what it did in Massachusetts a few weeks ago, asking a Federal Court to end litigation challenging the Trump Administration EPA's regulations determining the reach of the Federal Clean Water Act. In what may be the most hopeful statement I've ever seen, the Justice Department told the California Court that the Biden Administration EPA might do what prior administrations, including the Obama and Trump administrations, have failed to do -- resolve the longest running controversy in environmental law.

The best lawyer I've ever met has said hope is not a strategy. While I agree with the Justice Department that the courts are not the right place to resolve the reach of the Clean Water Act, I don't see how anyone could possibly think that the eighth regulatory attempt to determine the reach of the Clean Water Act is going to do anything but result in more litigation.

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