The state of Florida quickly filed an appeal after a U.S. district judge turned down the federal government’s plan for 2020 to give the state more control over projects that affect waterways.
The state’s lawyers sent a letter to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Monday. This is the first step in their plan to appeal the decision made by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss.
The letter also said that the state would ask Moss to delay his decision while the appeal is being heard. As is usual, the notice didn’t go into detail about the points the state’s lawyers will make in their appeal.
The Washington, D.C.-based Moss made a final decision on almost every part of the case on Friday. In February, Moss threw out the transfer of permitting power because he thought federal officials had not taken all the necessary steps before making the 2020 decision.
Business and environmental groups have been closely following the case. In a court filing, the state said that Moss’ decision in February could affect “pending permit applications for roads and bridges, hospital construction projects, school buildings and facilities, affordable housing, military base projects, power grid reliability projects (including construction of new power generation facilities and transmission lines), and various projects necessary to improve water quality.”
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The state asked for a stay of some of Moss’s decision from February 15, but the judge wrote on Friday that a stay would be “neither workable nor desirable.” He also wrote that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is ready to look over licenses, just like they did before the state took over the power. Moss was ready for the appeal and said that the final decision would help the case move forward.
“Although the court’s (Moss’) decision probably won’t have the bad effects Florida fears—as already said—the Corps is ready, willing, and able to issue permits in Florida, as it did for decades before the EPA approved Florida’s assumption application and as it does in 47 other states—Florida still has a good reason to get an immediate appeal of a decision and order that threw out a program to which it has committed. “Florida may or may not win on appeal, but there is no good reason to keep it from asking for review.”
In December 2020, about a month before former President Donald Trump’s term finished, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the state permission to take over the permitting process. After Michigan and New Jersey, Florida was the only other state to get the permit power after this move.
In 2021, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation, Miami Waterkeeper, and St. Johns Riverkeeper all hired lawyers from Earthjustice to sue the federal government.
Groups like the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida, and the Association of Florida Community Developers have backed the state’s stance since it was taken.
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