A federal court overturned a court order for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish a report on job losses from its policies two days before said report was set to be released.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia ruled the coal company Murray Energy couldn’t use a lawsuit to force the EPA to conduct a study on coal job losses, overturning an October ruling by federal judge in West Virginia. That judge ordered EPA to conduct a study on job losses in the coal and other industries from federal regulations.
The EPA had until July 1 to publish it’s report — two days after the appeals court ruling. But that won’t stop the Trump administration from taking the October ruling into account.
“President Trump’s EPA will take the economic and job impacts of its proposed regulations into account consistent with its statutory requirements, regardless of the outcome of this particular case,” Amy Graham, an EPA spokesperson, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Even though President Donald Trump has portrayed himself as friendly to the coal industry than his predecessor, his administration still defended its policies. The agency specified that it had devoted roughly 100 staffers to producing the report and spent millions of dollars defending the case.
Today’s ruling, just two days before deadline, is like cramming for a big test only to show up to class and find the test has been cancelled
— David Schultz (@davidbschultz) June 29, 2017
“We are reviewing the opinion and intend to appeal,” Gary M. Broadbent, senior corporate counsel for Murray Energy, told TheDCNF.
Murray could appeal to other judges on the 4th Circuit to re-hear the case or go to the Supreme Court.
The October ruling gave the EPA until July 1st to perform this job loss analysis, and providentially the environmental agency devoted major manpower to doing so. The litigation for this case has lasted almost three years.
Send tips to andrew@
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.