Court Rejects Reconsideration: Stays the Course

September 1, 2020.  The District Court rejected EPA’s motion to reconsider its motion to dismiss the court’s earlier landmark ruling that required EPA to keep the nation’s oil spill response plans current and effective. In the September ruling, the Judge wrote that “EPA’s arguments amount to an improper repetition of the arguments that it made in its motion to dismiss, which I rejected.” In staying the course, EPA has three options: appealing to a higher court, going to trial or settling the case under a court-enforced deadline to update the NCP. Time will tell what path is chosen.