West Virginia Attorney General issued the following announcement on Jan. 23.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey praised the Trump administration’s decision to enact the Navigable Waters Protection Rule to replace the Obama-era Waters of the United States Rule, which the Attorney General has previously characterized as a power grab.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced implementation of the new rule Thursday as the second of a two-step process. The first step repealed the Obama-era rule in order to give renewed certainty to farmers and landowners by restoring the once longstanding, predictable and reasonable lines between waters subject to federal and state regulation.
“The Trump administration’s new rule will protect water quality while restoring the balance and certainty that our nation needs to prosper,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “You cannot regulate a puddle as you do a river and doing so will never give us cleaner water, which is what we all want. The Obama-era approach would harm jobs and economic growth by taking jurisdiction from states and asserting federal authority over almost any body of water, including roadside ditches, short-lived streams and many other areas where water may flow only once every 100 years. The Trump rule strives to correct that, and our office is proud to support it.”
Thursday’s finalization of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule is the culmination of a long process supported by Attorney General Morrisey during which he led a 17-state coalition in favor of the Trump administration’s efforts.
The coalition’s public comment supported implementing the rule arguing it shows respect for the primary responsibility and right of states to regulate their own water resources and will correct flaws within the Obama-era regulation, which extended the authority of the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers far beyond what Congress intended and the Constitution permits.
Attorney General Morrisey has been a national leader in fighting against the Obama-era regulation since its issuance in June 2015.
The 2015 rule, if implemented, would have overstepped the agencies’ jurisdiction. For instance, if a property owner wanted to use sand to fill a ditch that has not carried water in decades, the Obama-era rule could have subjected that person to fines and penalties for violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
Attorney General Morrisey’s persistence helped win a stay that blocked enforcement of the rule in October 2015 – as well as related victories in 2018 and most recently in August 2019. West Virginia continues to benefit from these court rulings, as the decisions proved crucial in providing time for a new administration and reconsideration of the rule.
In February 2017, the Attorney General attended a White House ceremony, during which President Trump directed EPA and the Corps of Engineers to review the Obama rule, begin efforts to rescind the regulation and take appropriate steps in litigation.
Original source can be found here.