The latest cause for concern is the White House's finalized clean water rule that renounces the federal government's ability to regulate ponds, puddles, and ditches.
The Obama-era rule was controversial from the get-go, with multiple Red states filing legal challenges claiming it exceeded the federal government's authority to regulate water pollution.
The new rule released yesterday is intended to pare back the federal government's regulatory powers to something closer to what Congress intended when it passed the 1972 Clean Water Act.
"All states have their own protections for waters within their borders, and many regulate more broadly than the federal government," said Environmental Protection Agency chief Andy Wheeler at a homebuilding conference in Las Vegas today.
"California will be hit hard as Trump administration weakens clean water protections," warned the Los Angeles Times.
The law defines those navigable waters rather vaguely as "The waters of the United States." For decades, federal agencies claimed the power to regulate stream beds that were dry most of the year, ponds on private property, and even roadside ditches, all on the theory that these small bodies of water would eventually filter into navigable waterways.
Francois calls the new rules a "Mixed bag," saying that they "Properly remove physically isolated ponds and puddles from federal control" but still leave the EPA "In control of 'streams' that flow as little as a few days a year, in violation of the Clean Water Act and Supreme Court precedent."
https://reason.com/2020/01/24/trump-administration-repeals-federal-protections-on-puddles-dry-stream-beds-some-ditches/
The Obama-era rule was controversial from the get-go, with multiple Red states filing legal challenges claiming it exceeded the federal government's authority to regulate water pollution.
The new rule released yesterday is intended to pare back the federal government's regulatory powers to something closer to what Congress intended when it passed the 1972 Clean Water Act.
"All states have their own protections for waters within their borders, and many regulate more broadly than the federal government," said Environmental Protection Agency chief Andy Wheeler at a homebuilding conference in Las Vegas today.
"California will be hit hard as Trump administration weakens clean water protections," warned the Los Angeles Times.
The law defines those navigable waters rather vaguely as "The waters of the United States." For decades, federal agencies claimed the power to regulate stream beds that were dry most of the year, ponds on private property, and even roadside ditches, all on the theory that these small bodies of water would eventually filter into navigable waterways.
Francois calls the new rules a "Mixed bag," saying that they "Properly remove physically isolated ponds and puddles from federal control" but still leave the EPA "In control of 'streams' that flow as little as a few days a year, in violation of the Clean Water Act and Supreme Court precedent."
https://reason.com/2020/01/24/trump-administration-repeals-federal-protections-on-puddles-dry-stream-beds-some-ditches/
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