CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr are leading a 23-state effort to protect property owners, farmers and energy producers against an attempt to reinstitute an Obama administration water rule.
Morrisey and the other AGs are hoping to convince a federal judge to uphold the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which they say gives greater certainty to farmers and landowners with predictable and reasonable lines between waters subject to federal and state regulation.
“Our landowners, farmers and job producers deserve the certainty provided by the Trump administration rule,” Morrisey said. “It strikes the right balance in helping ensure our nation maintains high water quality standards while minimizing the regulatory and economic impact on farmers, job creators and landowners.”
Morrisey
Morrisey said the motion to intervene seeks to ensure the court considers West Virginia’s interests and that of its coalition partners when it decides a challenge brought by a separate group of attorneys general led by New York and California. The motion to intervene and a proposed opposition to a preliminary injunction were filed June 1 in federal court in the Northern District of California.
West Virginia, Georgia and the others say their states have significant interests in protecting their ability to administer waters within their borders, and that those interests will be unique and separate from those argued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its fellow defendants. Morrisey's coalition also opposes a motion that would keep the new rule from going into effect anywhere in the country while the case moves forward.
West Virginia and its partners claim the Trump rule strikes the proper balance between the roles of federal regulators and states in protecting land and water resources in that it shows respect for the primary responsibility and right of states to regulate their water resources.
They say the Trump rule also corrects flaws within the Obama-era regulation, which they say improperly extended the authority of the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beyond what Congress intended and the Constitution permits.
West Virginia and Georgia led a motion to intervene with support of attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
