The White House Council on Environmental Quality doesn’t have the authority to issue rules, and therefore, a Biden administration rule that changed the procedures for environmental reviews is invalid, a judge ruled Monday.
The ruling was a win for Iowa, North Dakota, and several other states that argued the 2024 rule violated the major questions doctrine and the National Environmental Policy Act by exceeding CEQ’s authority.
In an order criticizing the “disheveled hodgepodge of law surrounding administrative agencies and executive orders generally,” Judge Daniel M. Traynor wrote that it was up to Congress to formally grant CEQ the authority to …