On Tuesday, Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency announced it would roll back Obama-era rules that, under cover of the 1972 Clean Water Act, empowered federal bureaucrats to regulate virtually every puddle, pond and drainage ditch under the guise of protecting wetlands. The result was a morass of red tape that created a nightmare for farmers, […]
The Trump EPA is thankfully proposing to restore common sense to EPA regulatory authority. The agency proposes to walk back the Obama administration’s asserted authority to regulate streambeds and land depressions that are usually dry. EPA will no longer regulate wetlands unless they are “physically and meaningfully connected” to waters under EPA jurisdiction. EPA will […]
Critics are decrying the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to change the definition of the “Waters of the United States” as leaving “vast amounts of wetlands and thousands of miles of U.S. waterways” without federal protection. What’s not often mentioned is that the definition has only been in effect for three years and if tightly enforced, […]
EPA’s rollback of clean water protections would ease regulations on the utility sector, which has said the current rules burden them by requiring federal permits for energy projects near protected waters. The rule, finalized in 2015, expanded the definition of federally protected waters to include ephemeral streams and more wetlands, sparking court challenges from utilities […]
Agricultural organizations are applauding the Trump administration’s proposal to rein in what they contend was federal overreach by the Obama administration to define waters regulated under the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army on Tuesday announced they are proposing a clear, understandable and implementable definition of “waters of […]
Burdensome and excessive federal regulations often delay or prohibit American businesses from investing in infrastructure or land development projects that will create jobs, grow crops and improve how we manage our natural resources. Upon taking office, President Trump initiated a process to review and replace these regulatory barriers, which included the Obama administration’s 2015 “waters […]
Invoking Justice Kennedy’s muddled opinion, the Obama EPA claimed all land within a 100-year floodplain and 1,500 feet of the high-water mark or 4,000 feet of waters already under its jurisdiction—namely, rivers, tributaries and adjacent wetlands. Ditto “ephemeral” ponds, ditches and creeks that occasionally fill with storm runoff. The Hudson River is less murky than […]
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have proposed a new draft of the Waters of the United State rule, known as the WOTUS rule, that seeks to clarify federal authority under the Clean Water Act. The new proposal seeks to restore more authority to state and local governments and would remove […]
In 2015, the Environment Protection Agency finalized a rule that allowed federal bureaucrats to come into our backyards and onto our farms to regulate any brook, stream or pond, no matter the size or even if it had water in it. Known as “Waters of the United States,” or WOTUS, the Obama administration rewrote standing […]
Every citizen of this country wants crystal-clean water, but virtually no one wants the federal government to monitor and control every last corner of the country in pursuit of that goal. Are these priorities compatible? Is it possible for the government to conduct reasonable, necessary environmental protection of our crucial waterways while leaving law-abiding citizens, […]