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Earlier today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) finalized a much anticipated rule that would redefine “Waters of the United States” and vastly expand the two agencies’ regulatory authority over the nation’s water resources. EPA and the Corps proposed the rule in April 2014 seeking to clarify precisely what water resources it classified as “navigable” and, thus, able to be regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The move to redefine “Waters of the United States” comes after the Supreme Court twice checked the agencies’ overly broad interpretation of the CWA in Solid...

The EPA is on the verge of finalizing a new “Waters of the United States” regulation that would greatly expand the agency’s control over U.S. waters, and may even give the EPA the power to regulate ponds, ditches and puddles. Republican lawmakers, however, are pushing back against the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, warning the agency may have inappropriately lobbied and worked with environmental campaign activists to inflate the support behind the agency’s water takeover. “Given the magnitude and controversy surrounding the EPA’s rulemaking agenda, it is very troubling that EPA has engaged in a propaganda campaign to...

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a rule Wednesday that critics say would expand federal reach over U.S. waterways, but that the Obama administration contends will clarify which farming, development and other practices are subject to regulation. The battle over the "Waters of the U.S." rule has been brewing for months and will continue both on and off Capitol Hill. The regulation attempts to define Clean Water Act regulations as stretching to bodies of water that have a "significant nexus" with "navigable waters" to prevent pollution of drinking water. The EPA told various media outlets that the rule asserts the agency's...

The Obama administration is expected to announce final details of “Waters of the United States” rule this week that could impact any property owner with water or a ditch that occasionally fills with water on their land. Moreover, the regulation could even conflict with two Supreme Court rulings. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have sought to provide more clarity to what bodies of water are protected under the 1972 Clean Water Act, which has previously affected rivers, lakes and the streams that flow directly to them.

Senate Republicans introduced a bill Wednesday that would overturn the Obama administration’s landmark climate rule for power plants and make it nearly impossible to rewrite them. The legislation represents the GOP’s first major legislative effort in the Senate to confront the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) carbon dioxide limits it proposed last year. It reflects the Republican Party’s broad opposition to the regulations, which they say would cost billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of jobs and have little to no environmental benefit. Republicans in both chambers have largely avoided legislation to stop the rules and instead focused their attention on...

Energy and environmental regulations finalized by the Obama administration in the past five years come with a hefty price tag of $460.5 billion, according to data compiled by a center-right think tank. The American Action Forum’s Regulation Rodeo database shows that the Obama administration finalized 275 energy and environment regulations between 2009 and 2014, with the price tag of each regulation averaging $1.75 billion. And that doesn’t even consider the paperwork companies will have to complete. AAF data shows that Obama’s energy regulations have burdened Americans with 24.3 million paperwork hours. That means every year, Americans have to complete an...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is spending $84,000 to study how churches can be used to combat climate change. A taxpayer-funded graduate fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is examining 17 faith-based institutions that have implemented "sustainability initiatives" in the hopes of developing workshops to teach pastors and other religious leaders how to change the behaviors of their congregants. "Climate change-which affects traditional faith-based efforts to improve human health, mitigate poverty and redress social inequity-is inspiring religious organizations to advocate for clean air and water, restore ecosystems, and conserve resources," a grant for the project, which began...

Better for states not to comply with the EPA’s plans than to go along and absolve the feds of accountability for the mess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) set off a firestorm recently when he advised states not to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan. Yet that advice isn’t as radical as his detractors make it sound. As a state public utilities commissioner who deals with the effects of federal regulations on a regular basis, I also recommend that states not comply. ... While the short-term effects may be painful, the long-term consequences of submitting...

EPA claims that it’s simplifying regulations and making them easier to follow, but the fine print tells another story. Business owners around the country have joined with farmers and ranchers in speaking out on the Waters of the U.S. rule. More than 30 states also oppose the rule. Yet, even in the face of mounting opposition, the EPA still isn’t listening. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has unveiled her latest, campaign-style WOTUS spin, calling the effort the “Clean Water Rule” – as though a bumper-sticker approach to a complex regulation would change anything for people so profoundly affected by her agency’s...

As debate intensifies around the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed carbon dioxide rule, EPA’s supporters are pushing back against claims that the economic costs of the rule outweigh the climate benefits. For instance, in a recent opinion piece for the Arizona Republic, University of Arizona law professor Kris Mayes claims that a widely cited study by NERA Economic Consulting fails to account for “energy efficiency investments that save money for consumers.” This criticism of NERA is unfounded. In fact, as NERA and others explain, it is EPA who has failed to accurately calculate energy efficiency and other impacts, resulting in...

The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Gina McCarthy, speaks at the Center for American Progress' 2014 Making Progress Policy Conference in Washington November 19, 2014. REUTERS/Gary Cameron Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe has been getting a lot of press in advance of his representation of Peabody Energy in its dispute with the Obama Administration over the constitutionality of the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon dioxide emission regulations. The New York Times reported (April 6) that many of Tribe’s colleagues at Harvard Law School are “bewildered and angry.” Jody Freeman, director of the environmental law program at Harvard Law School,...

Laurence H. Tribe, the highly regarded liberal scholar of constitutional law, still speaks of President Obama as a proud teacher would of a star student. “He was one of the most amazing research assistants I’ve ever had,” Mr. Tribe said in a recent interview. Mr. Obama worked for him at Harvard Law School, where Mr. Tribe has taught for four decades. Many in the Obama administration and at Harvard are bewildered and angry that Mr. Tribe, who argued on behalf of Al Gore in the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, has emerged as the leading legal opponent of...

One of the country's largest coal utilities will begin closing power plants next month in four states, as strict federal environmental regulations begin to kick in. The company, American Electric Power, made the announcement in a notice advising employees at the electricity stations that it plans to close six power plants in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, according to news reports. The company said it plans to shutter as much as 6,000 megawatts of power plant capacity in seven states by the start of 2016. The closures were planned as far back as 2011 to comply with new pollution...

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in Michigan v. EPA, asking whether it was unreasonable for the Environmental Protection Agency to ignore costs in determining the appropriateness of regulating mercury emissions from power plants. The EPA’s proposed regulations are expected to cost the coal industry a whopping $9.6 billion, but only offer a meager $500,000 to $6 million in public health benefits. Cato filed an amicus brief in the case that focuses on why the EPA chose to ignore costs in developing these regulations. It turns out that EPA could achieve its goal of comprehensively regulating utility emissions only...

Senate Republicans are proposing a budget amendment that would let states opt out of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) controversial climate rule for power plants.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) proposed the amendment Tuesday on behalf of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is up for reelection in 2016. ADVERTISEMENT Under the amendment, a state’s governor or legislature would be able to opt out of the rule’s requirements for a variety of reasons.In order to be exempt from the rule, a governor or legislature would have to cite one of the following reasons: that the rule would hurt low-income or fixed-income...

Business groups are waging war on the Obama administration’s proposal to reduce ozone pollution, arguing the regulations would cripple the U.S. economy. In order to comply with the proposed rule, many areas of the country would have to all but shut down land development and oil and natural gas drilling, industry groups charged on the final day for comments. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being spurred on by greens and health groups, who argue that lower ozone emissions would benefit public health. The agency, they contend, is obligated to adopt the stricter standards. But the rules would translate to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is directing the federal government to cut its emissions of heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. Obama will sign an executive order targeting greenhouse gases at the White House on Thursday. The White House says a number of major companies that sell to the federal government will also announce commitments to cut their emissions.

resident Obama has found himself at odds with his old law school mentor over the Environmental Protection Agency. Laurence Tribe, a liberal constitutional scholar at Harvard University, told House lawmakers that EPA carbon dioxide regulations are tearing the Constitution apart. “EPA possesses only the authority granted to it by Congress,” Tribe told lawmakers in a hearing Tuesday. “Its gambit here raises serious questions under the separation of powers… because EPA is attempting to exercise lawmaking power that belongs to Congress and judicial power that belongs to the federal courts.” “Burning the Constitution should not become part of our national energy...

Energy companies are preparing to shut down nearly 16 gigawatts of power by the end of this year as the deadline for compliance with new federal environmental regulations looms. In total, some 85 coal-fired generating units at 36 locations are expected to close in the coming months in part because of Environmental Protection Agency regulations. The largest set of retirements is set for June, when electricity demand starts to peak as Americans turn on their air conditioners for the summer. Most of these retirements will come from coal-fired power plants in Appalachia. “We are currently showing nearly 300 GW of...

(CNSNews.com) - In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy said that “climate change puts the world’s coffee-growing regions at risk.” “Climate change injects volatility into the global marketplace. Volatility leads to instability,” McCarthy said. “Take coffee. Now coffee is a temperature sensitive crop. Climate change puts the world’s coffee-growing regions at risk.