In a significant victory for the agricultural and business sectors, a federal appellate court this morning suspended nationwide implementation of the “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule until further order of the court. He expressed fear the federal government would use the overly broad definition of waters it oversees to improperly penalize landowners.
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A lower court had already blocked the rule in 13 states, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit issued a nationwide stay, undercutting the EPA’s push to try to carry out the rule in the rest of the country.
The EPA has stated that the rule is needed to clarify previous court rulings that could call their ability to protect wetlands into question. “Unfortunately, polluting industries promised legal warfare when the Obama Administration chose to move forward on this rule, and that’s exactly what we are seeing now”.
The rule expanded the power of the EPA and Corps of Engineers’ regulatory jurisdiction to a number of much smaller bodies of water.
“Given the strong legal and scientific basis for the Clean Water Rule, we’re confident the courts will ultimately reject all efforts to weaken or dismantle it. For the sake of our drinking water and our favorite rivers and lakes, that ultimate decision can’t come a day too soon”.
“The court’s ruling is good news for property owners whose land would have been subject to extensive new federal regulations due to this overreaching new water rule”, Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement Friday.
In February, Senator Ernst invited EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to Iowa to see the potential impact of overregulation in Iowa.
“WOTUS is now on borrowed time”. “We need legislation that requires an honest rulemaking from EPA. A stay honors the policy of cooperative federalism that informs the Clean Water Act and must attend the shared responsibility for safeguarding the nation’s waters”, judges wrote.
“A stay allows for a more deliberate determination whether this exercise of executive power…is proper under the dictates of federal law”, the court said in its majority opinion.
The Sixth Circuit’s ruling was on a consolidation of four cases involving the 18 states: Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.
The decision to “stay” the rule, granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati, comes a little more than month after a U.S. District Court judge issued a temporary injunction against implementation of the regulation.
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The stay was granted so the court may determine jurisdiction on the several pending WOTUS lawsuits challenging the rule, and sort out confusion about its requirements, the court order said.
