McCuskey Submits Multi-State Brief In Guam EPA Case 

The state’s top law officer is getting involved in a lawsuit from Guam.  

West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey is leading a coalition of 21 states asking the Supreme Court of the United States to protect states’ right to manage their own environmental permitting. The other states signed onto the brief include Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.  

While not directly involved in the case, McCuskey’s amicus brief – also known as a “friend of the court” brief – asks the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling blocking an Air Force permit for hazardous waste disposal in Department of the Air Force, et al. v. Prutehi Guahan.    

In a press release, McCusky said by ruling that activity stop before Guam’s environmental protection agency can review the permit, the Ninth Circuit’s order sidelines the states and shifts all the power to federal judges.  

“Extreme environmentalist activists are trying to weaponize laws and add unnecessary layers to an established and workable permit process. If they are allowed to succeed, they will be able to delay or block any project—including housing, energy or military—they want at any stage—even before the appropriate agencies have had the chance to look at it,” he said. “This will cost taxpayers millions of dollars in project delays and cancellations, as well as litigation costs with little, if any, environmental benefit. This is an abuse of the process. Not only that, but it would also strip states of their congressionally mandated permitting authority. Where does it stop? We must take a stand now to end this extreme overreach.” 

The coalition argues that because the Air Force simply applied for renewal of a permit and nothing has been approved yet, it is too early to sue. They argue the Ninth Circuit’s ruling threatens a principle called cooperative federalism — the system where Congress lets states run environmental permitting programs within federal guidelines.  

“Every state in this country has permitting programs that depend on being allowed to do their jobs. If activist groups can run to federal court before a state agency has even looked at an application, then the federal courts become the decision-makers, and states are left on the sidelines,” McCuskey said. “Let the Guam EPA do its job first. If someone wants to challenge the final permit decision, they can do that later, but not before the process even has a chance to work.” 

Read the amicus brief below: