TALLAHASSEE, Florida — A federal judge Tuesday rejected Florida’s request for a stay pending appeal of his ruling overturning the state’s authority to issue federal wetlands permits.
U.S. District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss in Washington rejected the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s arguments that the ruling already has caused “irreparable harm” to the state. Florida last week appealed his decision siding with environmental groups who sued federal agencies for passing responsibility off to Florida.
DEP told the court that more than 1,000 permits were being processed in February when the judge issued his ruling overturning the 2020 Trump administration decision to delegate Clean Water Act permitting to the state.
But Moss wrote in his order Tuesday that federal agencies testified that they stand ready to expedite those permits if the state will forward them for processing. The Army Corps of Engineers’ “‘intention here is not to make people start from square one’ but, rather, ‘to do this as efficiently as possible,'” Moss wrote.
