Trump Set to Reverse EPA’s Waters Rule Power Grab
Under Trump, your puddles will belong to you.
In May of 2015, the Obama administration engaged in one of its more shocking and unacceptable power grabs with the EPA’s Waters of the United States rule. President Trump, thus far clearly intent on keeping his campaign promises, is going to reverse this onerous overreach of the federal government as early as Wednesday.
Writing at the time of the rule’s announcement, I noted that the scope of the rule was such that it included, quite literally, puddles in one’s driveway or yard.
According to the document (full text [linked above]), the rule itself is not intended as regulatory (that probably comes later), but is instead “a definitional rule that clarifies the scope of the ‘waters of the United States’ . . . .” Essentially, almost all fresh water, including that in “water-filled depressions,” is now under the federal government’s purview and subject to government oversight and regulation.
Watch Judge Napolitano explain the depth of the problem with this rule:
In October of 2015, a federal court blocked the rule nationwide, and in January of this year the Supreme Court agreed to resolve jurisdictional wrangling over the rule, thus giving the Trump administration room to affect changes to or revoke the rule.
Trump has decided to reverse the rule entirely.
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign a measure on Wednesday aimed at rescinding a major Obama administration water regulation and direct an end to the government’s defense of the rule, a Trump official briefed on the plan said on Friday.
Trump is expected to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which expands the number of waterways that are federally protected under the Clean Water Act.
Trump is likely influenced in his decision to ditch the Waters rule because of its economic impact, but whatever his reasons, this is a good move for conservatives like myself who were critical of the rule’s implicit and alarming expansion of government power.
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Comments
I can hear the sobbing from the EPA already.
Sweet!
The most precious commodity on earth is water. Whoever controls all the water has absolute power.
If they had won this election eventually only politically favored companies, ethnic groups and powerful leftists would get access to water.
That’s how close we came.
There’s no reason to trust the moral authority of an unelected body like EPA to rule wisely or in a just manner, either. In fact less reason than trusting a business, because EPA has no competition who can call it to account, while the business does.
We can rightly worry over President Trump’s concern for Constitutional government, but whatever reason he chooses to abolish WOTUS makes a very good step in the right direction.
Those ‘moral authority’ arguments from supporters of rule by unelected diktat need to be turned back on them. In their preening and posturing, they’re doing their best to impose collectivism on the people, with themselves as the progressive ‘experts’ who’ll make all the decisions. Look how that turned out for the people of Cuba and Venezuela and etc etc etc.
F**k the economic impact, if the federal government controls every drop of freshwater and, by extension, everything that affects that water, it holds the power of absolute tyranny… legal tyranny. In my home state of Michigan – the Great Lake State – you can’t throw a rock without hitting a pond, stream, creek, lake, or river. Most all of it is privately owned. But this odious, dangerous regulation allows the federal government to usurp the whole concept of private property. If it’s wet, the federal government controls it. Imagine how easily such regulation can be used to oppress and control people by controlling their property simply because it has water on it, from puddle or seasonal rivulet to any creek or river, up to big lakes.
Might as well regulate the air we breathe.
Oh, I’m sure there’s some little leftover Obama bureacrat somewhere in DC writing that up as we speak.
Best not to give them ideas, Henry!
There is no question that Obama was a tyrant seeking absolute rule over America. It wasn’t enough that he snagged two Presidential elections, but he also worked hard to cripple American freedoms, liberties and values. …and he’s not done yet
Obama was a Leftist. Dat’s what dey do.
Hallelujah. Now Congress needs to pass a law spelling out what is beyond EPA’s purview so we don’t have to face this again.
Don’t expect that from the Crying Boehners. Perhaps when we and Trump finally boots Ryan and McConnell out.
“…it included, quite literally, puddles in one’s driveway or yard.”
No, from what I understand it includes anywhere a puddle *might* form, even if the area is totally dry 99% of the time, and includes penalties for establishing a drain for that area, even if a previous drain had silted in and was no longer functional.
Puddles not necessary.
After it is filtered through my kidneys, I might share it with the government.
First ObamaCare, then this. I can imagine Obama’s administration had an updated version of a song by The Hollies, that they titled, “All I Need Is the Air That You Breathe, and to Tax You”.
All these things are happening in front if the media BUT they instead focus on everything that has made them irellivant… and got Trump elected in the first place.
Just so much winning that the next Presidential election win for Trump is going to be an even bigger surprise for liberals than the first 🙂
You’re exactly right – this story, right here, is big news.
But I guarantee that instead, the media is going to spend the next month moping and whining about how their onetime boyfriend, who they now hate, stood them up for a dinner date.
“Can we really trust to the moral authority of …”
I’ll trust to the moral authority of a small business well before that of big government, I can tell you that.
Remember, during the Cold War, the cartoons of the enemy soldiers, rolling around on the floor laughing at the US, PC move of the day. I bet there are some places where they are repeating the cartoons.