EPA Overreach Ending

In a significant victory for farmers, ranchers, and other landowners, President Trump has taken steps to stop Obama’s regulatory scheme that has subjected millions of acres of private land to federal zoning.

In a report written by APC Board Member Dr. Bonner Cohen for our friends at CFACT, he says, “By rolling back Obama’s 2015 ‘Waters of the United States’ (WOTUS) rule, the administration has put an end to the biggest power grab in the 48-year history of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”

WOTUS used a very questionable definition of what a “navigatable water way” is. The Obama rule included ditches, ponds, ground water, and basically mud puddles that appear after a rainfall.

As a result, farmers, ranchers and other landowners have been forced to get permits from the EPA in order to make any modifications to their property. The main result of the scheme was to make the EPA massively powerful, as it basically controlled all of the water in the nation.

As a candidate in 2016, President Trump vowed to kill WOTUS. Once elected he issued an executive order directing the EPA to roll it back. But of course, a district judge from South Carolina invalidated the effort in 2018.

Now President Trump is trying again by clearly defining what a navigatable waterway is. And by stating exactly what EPA and the Corps of Engineers will and will not regulate.

As Dr. Cohen reports, the new rule is a major victory for farmers and ranchers, allowing them to work their land productively “without having to hire an army of lawyers and consultants.”

But here’s the major danger: radical environmental groups refuse to accept diminished EPA power. They are planning to file law suits against the EPA and the Corp of Engineers in an all out fight to get their way.

Source: Email from Tom DeWeese at American Policy Center.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader