Yogi Berra was right: It ain’t over ’til it’s over.
We thought the battle over the meaning of “navigable waters” was over, but it ain’t.
In 2015, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and other state AGs persuaded a U.S. Court of Appeals to stay implementation of the Waters of the United States Rule. Upon assuming office, President Trump called for review and rescission of the WOTUS Rule, and an acting EPA Administrator subsequently unveiled a proposed change. Last year, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers promised that the rule would be repealed and replaced.
The Trump administration subsequently announced that the intentionally ambiguous and easily abused Waters of the United States Rule had been replaced by the new, clear, and commonsensical Navigable Waters Protection Rule.
Concerned that “the Obama-era approach” would violate private property rights and cause enormous damage to local, state, and national economies, Morrisey was pleased with the success of his multi-year crusade.
“The Trump administration’s new rule will protect water quality while restoring the balance and certainty that our nation needs to prosper,” he affirmed. “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.”
But it wasn’t over yet.
A rival group of state AGs, led by New York and California (needless to say), decided to challenge the new, more reasonable Trump rule and seek an injunction prohibiting its implementation. That forced Morrisey, et al. to soldier on and file a motion to intervene in the federal court case in the Northern District of California.
“Our landowners, farmers, and job producers deserve the certainty provided by the Trump administration rule,” Morrisey asserts. “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.”
Getting rid of irrational regulations is like killing zombies: Even when they seem to be dead, they may spring back to life. It ain’t over ’til it’s over.