As the most reliable and balanced news aggregation service on the internet, DML News offers the following information published by TheHill.com:
A federal court Friday threw out the Trump administration’s attempt to delay a chemical plant safety regulation written by the Obama administration.
In a major blow to the Trump administration, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Clean Air Act forbids the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from delaying the regulation’s enforcement, as it tried to do in June 2017.
The article goes on to state the following:
It is the second big court loss in as many days as President Trump‘s EPA attempts to delay Obama administration rules, following a judge’s ruling Thursday that the agency improperly tried to delay President Obama’s Clean Water Rule.
It is the third loss for EPA deregulatory actions in just over a week, following another court’s ruling last week that the agency was wrong when it declined to ban the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos.
“Because EPA has not engaged in reasoned decisionmaking, its promulgation of the delay rule is arbitrary and capricious,” the court wrote in its Friday opinion.
The judges said the EPA’s action “makes a mockery of the statute” and that “there is no textual basis for EPA’s current interpretation” of the law.
“By delaying the effective date, EPA has delayed compliance, reduced or eliminated the lead-up time to achieve the compliance that EPA had earlier found necessary, and thus has delayed life-saving protections.”
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D) celebrated the victory on Twitter:
#BREAKING: The DC Circuit has just blocked the Trump administration from delaying a rule that would protect communities, workers, and first responders from toxic chemical accidents.
This is a real thing that we had to sue over.
— NY AG Underwood (@NewYorkStateAG) August 17, 2018
Again and again, the Trump @EPA has tried to push through policies that jeopardize our health and fly in the face of the law.
Again and again, we’ve taken them to court and won. https://t.co/fle9QnVOF8
— NY AG Underwood (@NewYorkStateAG) August 17, 2018
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Twice in two days federal judges have used the word “illusory” to describe as unlawful Trump EPA delays of Obama-era rules
Left: WOTUS
Right: Chemical safety rule pic.twitter.com/tS1lmiGdWe— Alex Guillén (@alexcguillen) August 17, 2018
A panel of federal judges said the @EPA didn’t provide an adequate basis for the chemical facility safety rule delay https://t.co/IO4sf5kgyc via @BloombergEnv
— Sam Pearson (@samrpearson) August 17, 2018
Court tosses Pruitt delay of Obama-era chemical safety rule https://t.co/bKQG8VCFN5
The judges did not mince words: EPA’s reasoning “makes a mockery of the statute.”
— Alex Guillén (@alexcguillen) August 17, 2018
JUST IN: Court tosses out Trump EPA delay of Obama-era chemical plants safety rule https://t.co/3Gf0s2HlHq pic.twitter.com/Nn1OAMbgrf
— The Hill (@thehill) August 17, 2018
Great news: a federal court just shot down the Trump Administration’s attempt to weaken chemical safety rules. A big victory for worker safety and the environment.
These protections were developed under President Obama after a chemical plant explosion in West, Texas. https://t.co/ELUzoOo9gg
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) August 17, 2018
