On July
10, 2015, the Illinois Fifth District Appellate Court denied
a motion to enjoin the application of Illinois Department of Natural Resources’
(IDNR) proposed hydraulic fracturing rules.
In
November 2013, IDNR issued proposed
regulations implementing the Hydraulic
Fracturing Act of June 17, 2013
in accordance with the applicable procedures and rules of the Illinois
Administrative Procedure Act. The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules
(JCAR) approved final regulations in November 2014.
At the
same time, a group of Illinois residents and a non-profit organization,
Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment (SAFE), filed a motion
for Preliminary Relief before the Third Judicial Circuit Court of Madison
County seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the implementation of said
regulations. They claimed that IDNR failed to comply with the statutory
rulemaking procedures and violated the Administrative Procedure Act. As a
result, plaintiffs alleged that the rules “were incomplete, inadequate, and
invalidly enacted” and “would cause irreparable harm to the Plaintiffs and
other members of the public who were deprived of an adequate opportunity to
participate in the development of the proposed rules as required under [the
Act].”
On
November 21, 2014, the Circuit Court denied
the motion holding that plaintiffs did not properly establish irreparable
injury. Plaintiffs appealed the Court’s decision.
The
Appellate Court affirmed the Madison County Circuit Court’s decision and held
that “plaintiffs’ claims are too speculative to justify the extraordinary
relief afforded by the issuance of a preliminary injunction.” Therefore, the
court opined that plaintiffs failed to raise a fair question as to the
existence of irreparable harm.
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
08/07/2015
No comments:
Post a Comment