The order should have been to approve Texas’s submission. It is unreasonable to expect industry to wait until some bureaucrat decides to get off his bum and do his job before they pursue a project. If it is statutory deadline either you have met that deadline or you have not. Progress waits for no man.
It’s an amazing scam and power grab — but it keeps a lot of lawyers busy and well fed and a lot of Americans out of work and struggling (as well as the entire U.S. economy).