A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a Biden administration plan to improve cybersecurity for public water systems, after Republican-led states complained it would thrust burdensome costs on small and rural water suppliers. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis issued a stay temporarily suspending the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cybersecurity plan while a legal challenge filed by the state attorneys general of Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa runs its course. The EPA’s plan announced on March 3, which it called "guidance," meaning it was non-binding, recommended a series of novel rules placing more responsibility for securing water facilities at the state level.
but also the implications for our energy markets. that s so hitting millions of people in this country and elsewhere for the cost of energy. so i m assuming that s going to be top of the agenda. well, as tina says, we ll be speaking later to dr tamsin edwards about that. so more on climate change to come. but today s big thing, the thing you ve been dealing with today, there s an impolite way to put this in a polite way. the polite word is sewage. there was an apology this morning, wasn t there, from england s water suppliers for pumping sewage into waterways. how do we solve that problem? and indeed, perhaps more importantly, who should pay for it? well, we ve got to have a massive investment programme focused on the worst polluting elements of the system, first to really make some action quickly. but the bill payers shouldn t be paying for it and that s what the water companies are saying. they should be paying for it.
but again will still be waiting for guidance. we should get an update tonight as to how the latest testing is going, but i want to take us back started, as he said on friday, actually, with that chemical spill that happened near the delaware river it seeped into the delaware happened about 20 miles north of here, and the delaware is, of course, one of the main water suppliers for the city of philadelphia. so then, on sunday , the city sent out that first bush alert recommending folks drink bottled water out of an abundance of caution, but that said everyone in the city basically two grocery stores. they cleaned out shelves, buying water, and then only a few hours later, the city sent out another alert, saying, actually, the water is absolutely fine to drink. well we wanted to ask the city directly about those mixed messaging on sunday that sent folks into a bit of a panic running to the stores. take a listen to what city officials had to say. just last night. we may be over communicati