Today, on behalf of six conservation organizations—Big Bend Conservation Alliance; Environmental Defense Fund; Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance; Texas Real Estate Advocacy and Defense Coalition; Trinity Edwards Springs Protection Association; and Wimberley Valley Watershed Association—we filed an amicus letter in the Ninth Circuit opposing an emergency stay sought by the federal government that would allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to greenlight countless projects under the legally defective Clean Water Act Nationwide Permit 12 (“NWP 12”), before the Corps cures its failure to consult over the programmatic impacts to endangered and threatened species inherent in the NWP 12 permitting process. A federal judge in Montana recently held that NWP 12 violates the ESA in myriad ways, and partially vacated NWP 12 until the Corps completes the ESA consultation process. The government’s current stay request seeks to continue permitting projects in the absence of any completed programmatic ESA consultation, which could have significant adverse impacts on protected species and their habitat. The amicus letter can be found here.