Close their eyes and let it all out into the sea

Environmental policy is still struggling with the Bush legacy. Yesterday, citing ambiguities in the Clean Water Act and Bush Administration guidelines on interpretation, the Supreme Court upheld the right of a gold mine operation to drain waste into a lake, by characterizing it as "fill." The Clean Water Act prohibits polluting lakes, but allows the Army Corps of Engineers to use dirt and gravel "fill" to divert a stream or build a dam.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on behalf of the 3 dissenting justices (Souter and Stevens, if you had to ask), mocked the majority's rationale, saying it "strains credulity" and adding:

A discharge of a pollutant, otherwise prohibited by firm statutory command, becomes lawful if it contains sufficient solid matter to raise the bottom of transformed into a waste disposal facility. Whole categories of regulated industries can thereby gain immunity from a variety of pollution-control standards. The loophole would swallow not only standards governing mining activities … but also standards for dozens of other categories of regulated point sources.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, was thrilled by the decision. No, I'm not mocking her. OK, I am mocking her, but it's also true. She said it was "great news for Alaska."

Earthjustice indicates that the Obama Administration can effectively overturn that ruling through new rulemaking.