Supreme Court Revives Trump-era clean water rule in 5-4 decision

April 7, 2022 — bunkerville

Brick by brick Biden tears apart all the good work Trump did to make our economy hum again. This time it was the 9th circuit that tried to take care of business for Biden in setting aside Trump’s Rule change. Contrary to what is being reported, this is not setting aside clean water with rivers set to go on fire with pollution. The Rule limited the role of States in enforcing the Clean Water Act. Under the rubric of the act, every mud puddle in America has fallen under control of the Act. The States have used this to limit land use.

The Supreme Court utilized its emergency docket to reinstate a rule imposed during President Donald Trump’s administration that restricts the authority of states to block federal permits under the Clean Water Act

The supreme court in a 5-4 decision puts on hold Biden’s attempt to reverse Trump’s changes to the Clean Water Act. Justice Roberts joined the Liberal Justices in the minority.

New York Times:

The Clean Water Act envisions a role for states in issuing permits for discharges into the nation’s waters. Industry groups have long been frustrated by what the application called incongruities and ambiguities in an earlier regulation, in place for 50 years, which they said had allowed states to drag out and effectively veto projects on grounds other than the consideration of water quality.

Even the EPA conceded this:

Writing on behalf of the E.P.A., Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, urged the Supreme Court to deny the emergency application. Judge Alsup’s ruling, she wrote, merely reinstated the old regulation, which had been in place for a half-century. The 2020 regulation, she added, would most likely be replaced by next year.

Ms. Prelogar’s brief included a significant concession. “The federal respondents,” she wrote, “agree with applicants that the district court lacked authority to vacate the 2020 rule without first determining that the rule was invalid.” But she said that was not reason enough to block his ruling.

….

After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, refused to block Judge Alsup’s ruling while an appeal moved forward, Louisiana and other states led by Republicans, along with industry groups, filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to revive the regulation. They said that Judge Alsup had acted without considering administrative procedures or finding that the regulation was unlawful.

 

President Trump signs order to revoke Clean Water Rule

President Trump: The EPA has abused its rules. How wonderful to see a President cognitively in tact.

The best of what we once had in the swamp.

Bonus: This is our President today.

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Posted in Supreme Court. Tags: , , , , . 51 Comments »

E.PA. turns on the cities – storm water tax coming our way

October 25, 2012 — bunkerville

I am amazed that there has been little attention given to the massive over reach of the EPA into our lives by the GOP campaign.References to energy but few concrete examples that folks can wrap their mind around. Gas prices through the roof, and yet no outrage. We hear that there are massive regs coming down right after the election, but here is a story going down as we wait the outcome of our election. This has to be the most sinister part of Obama’s agenda. While we all know that most cities are on their last legs, this will cut the last vestige of hope of any recovery. Unfortunately, one has to pay for the full story at the WSJ, but enough is here to get the gist. I would be interested in which cities are on their agenda.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Behold the Obama Administration’s new public works plan. Sue cities for polluting waterways and then as part of a settlement require them to spend, er, “invest” billions in extraneous sewer improvements. The White House doesn’t even need legislation to pour this money down the drain. The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency have taken enforcement actions against 25 cities over the last four years for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act, and there are another 772 on their list. In addition to imposing millions of dollars in penalties, the feds have forced these cities into consent decrees that will cost their local taxpayers $21 billion. The decrees spell out in detail what capital upgrades they must undertake—everything down to the size of their pipes. The EPA says this extraordinary intrusion on local sovereignty is justified because cities are discharging waste into waterways during heavy rains. Many older wastewater systems include a safety valve that releases untreated stormwater and sewage into lakes and rivers when underground tunnels are flooded. This is to prevent waste from backing up in basements. The EPA has ordered cities to limit such wet weather overflows to four per year, regardless of how much rain they receive or how little muck they discharge. Many cities have already taken concrete steps to reduce such overflows by developing “green infrastructure” (i.e., permeable pavements, rain gardens, catch-basins) that soaks up and diverts stormwater. Such solutions are easier and less expensive to implement than reconstructing their underground systems as the EPA wants them to do.

H/T: News Alert

Posted in Energy, Green, Unions. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . 11 Comments »