Breaking: Judge Blocks New Obama Water Regulations

While we await the legal challenge to Obama’s greenhouse gas scheme, today a federal judge moved to block the EPA’s attempt to re-write the Clean Water Act and defy a key Supreme Court ruling from a decade ago. From The Hill just a few hours ago:

A federal judge in North Dakota acted late Thursday to block the Obama administration’s controversial water pollution rule, hours before it was due to take effect.

Judge Ralph Erickson of the District Court for the District of North Dakota found that the 13 states suing to block the rule met the conditions necessary for a preliminary injunction, including that they would likely be harmed if courts didn’t act and that they are likely to succeed when their underlying lawsuit against the rule is decided.

The decision is a major roadblock for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers, who were planning Friday to begin enforcing the Waters of the United States rule, expanding federal jurisdiction over small waterways like streams and wetlands.

But the very next sentence exposes the lawless spirit of the Obama Administration:

But the Obama administration says it will largely enforce the regulation as planned, arguing that the Thursday decision only applies to the 13 states that requested the injunction.

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