“The EPA this week announced plans to revise the Trump WOTUS (Waters of the United States) rule ‘to better protect our nation’s vital water resources that support public health, environmental protection, agricultural activity, and economic growth.’
President Biden wants Congress to shovel out hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure, which the EPA then will tie up in a permitting morass—unless, of course, the projects advance climate or social-justice goals.
Republicans shouldn’t agree to any infrastructure deal that doesn’t include permitting and regulatory efficiencies.”
Translation:
The EPA is preparing a private land grab that will limit farming, fracking, home building and economic activity.
“Recall how the Obama-era WOTUS rule expanded federal jurisdiction over ‘waters of the U.S.’ under the 1972 Clean Water Act, which authorized the feds to regulate ‘navigable waterways’ like the Hudson River.
The Obama EPA claimed jurisdiction over any waterways with a ‘significant nexus’ to ‘waters of the U.S.’
“This included 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, as well as ‘ephemeral’ ponds, ditches and creeks that occasionally filled with storm runoff.
The rule was intended to give the feds a veto over fossil-fuel development on private land.
“But it also meant that farmers would have to get permits to fill ditches.
Road and highway construction projects would need to undergo federal review if their storm runoff could affect waterways a mile or so away.
The Trump EPA sensibly revised the rule to exclude unnavigable bodies of waters, including those that fill with water after a rainfall.
“Now the Biden EPA complains the Trump regulatory rollback constrained its regulatory power too much, particularly in arid states like New Mexico and Arizona, and eliminated federal permitting requirements for 333 projects.
Ergo, the agency plans to launch another amphibious assault on private land."