Sen. Kevin Cramer, RN.D., slams Biden’s energy agenda and Kudlow’s climate compensation deal for poor countries.
The Biden administration signed the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, regulations to protect small streams, wetlands and waterways as part of the Clean Water Act, just before the end of 2022.
President Biden’s signing of the regulations ultimately overturned Trump-era regulations that made many waterways susceptible to pollution and were struck down by federal courts.
A federal appeals court on Monday blocked President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan days after a Texas federal judge threw it out. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The EPA signed off on the revised definition of “Waters of the United States” on December 29, while the US Army Corps of Engineers signed off on the revised definitions on December 28.
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The revised rules define what types of water bodies are protected under the Clean Water Act and are based on definitions put in place before 2015 during the Obama administration.
The Trump administration has reversed course from the Obama administration, which sought ways to expand federal protections for waterways.
The US Coast Guard said Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022, that at least eight barge “groundings” have been reported in the past week, despite low-water restrictions on barge cargo. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz, File/AP Newsroom)
The Trump administration’s rule benefits property owners, including farmers, developers and oil producers, concerned about federal regulation of creeks and streams on private property, such as farms.
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Without regulations for those waterways, environmental groups stressed, the rule would allow wetlands to be filled in by property owners, damaging habitat. It also allowed property owners to dump harmful pollutants into unprotected waterways that could potentially flow downstream and endanger wildlife or water sources.
The Trump-era rule was struck down by U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Marquez, who said the regulations ignore the fact that smaller waterways can affect the health of the waterways they flow into, the Associated Press reported.
Pictured: EPA Administrator Michael Regan visits Laguna San Jose in San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 26, 2022. (REUTERS/Gabriella N. Baez/Reuters)
The new rule signed by the Biden administration increases protections for wetlands, lakes, ponds and some streams, especially if they are navigable waterways or wetlands that are “relatively permanent.”
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There are no set distances for adjacent waterways or wetlands to determine whether or not they will be protected, but instead the rules state that the impact “depends on regional variations in climate, landscape and geomorphology.”
In the west, for example, there is less rain and higher evaporation rates, so wetlands may need to be close to a waterway to be considered contiguous. But in places that are wide and prominent, wetlands can be determined relatively close, even if they are 100 feet away.
Congressman Doug LaMalfa, a Republican who represents California, opposes the regulations.
What was once a northern California farm water source has dried up and now looks like cobblestone. (FOX/Fox News)
“Rural America does not need another rule giving the federal government more power over agriculture and private property,” he said in a statement this week. “The federal government should have no jurisdiction to regulate puddles, ditches, seasonal streams or culverts. All this rule does is make it harder to grow food or build anything.”
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Republican lawmaker Sen. Steve Daines of Montana also expressed concern about the federal government’s overreach, saying the Obama administration’s rule was “so broadly written” that it covered everything from puddles to irrigation ditches on private land, making them subject to of federal regulations.
“This is a step in the wrong direction by the Biden administration and violates the rights of Montana farmers, ranchers and landowners,” Daines said in a statement this week. “This excessive rule threatens Montana’s agriculture and natural resources and is unacceptable. I will continue to fight vigorously to protect Montanans from unaffordable rules handed down by D.C. bureaucrats.”
Dairy farmer Stephanie Nash is criticizing the USDA and the Biden administration’s food production policies and calling for more support for American-grown produce, warning of food shortages in 2023.
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