The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit summarily vaporized 46 years of Federal environmental regulationsWriting in a case called Marin Audubon Society, et al v. FAA, et al, the majority of a three-judge panel ruled that the
Council on Environmental Quality, a
cabal inside the Executive Office of the President charged with ensuring that National Environmental Protection Act requirements are interpreted uniformly across the federal government, had
illegally used the Federal Register to publish that guidance thereby giving citizens,
agencies, and even the courts the impression that their internal guidance had the authority of
law.The decision was written by Karen LeCraft Henderson (George H. W. Bush) and A. Raymond Randolph (George H. W. Bush) with Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan (Joe Biden) dissenting, and it found:
As the parties argue the case, it centers on whether the Agencies complied with regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality, an entity within the Executive Office of the President. We will not address these arguments. The CEQ regulations, which purport to govern how all federal agencies must comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, are ultra vires...
