Court Opinion

ID: 9518312
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:49:39.617617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:16.165911
License: Public Domain

WILLIAMS, Chief Judge,
concurring in the judgment:
Because I conclude that Baltimore County Bill 9-07 is expressly preempted by the Natural Gas Act under the Supremacy Clause, I would reverse the judgment of the district court. I therefore concur in the judgment. I do not agree, however, with the suggestion by the majority that Bill 9-07’s express liquefied natural gas terminal ban, although “preempted” today, might be “saved” from preemption tomorrow if approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as an amendment to Maryland’s Coastal Zone Management Plan. Majority Op. at 126-27 and n. 9. I cannot see how legislation like Bill 9-07, which expressly bans liquefied natural gas terminal siting in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, can ever be a “right [] of States under” the Coastal Zone Management Act.