The hydropower industry’s challenge to a Biden administration rule has now been put on hold while President Donald Trump’s team reconsiders broader changes to Endangered Species Act regulations.
In agreeing to a procedural move sought by the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said Monday that the hydropower industry’s lawsuit may be rendered superfluous if NOAA Fisheries and the Fish and Wildlife Service reverse course on the ESA rules as they have promised they will.
“They have represented to the Court that they are ‘extremely unlikely’ to apply the challenged regulations to the Plaintiffs,” Sooknanan said of the two federal agencies, adding she will “will hold the case in abeyance pending the rulemaking in the interest of judicial economy.”
Michael Purdie, the National Hydropower Association’s director of regulatory affairs and markets, and Brenna Vaughn, executive director of the Northwest Hydroelectric Association, said in a joint statement that they look forward to the Trump administration following through with its pledge.
