Free Republic

Moments like the one we live in now come along from time to time, providing the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past. For instance, key takeaways from the Deepwater Horizon incident of April 2010 and how they apply to today are clear except to those who deny them. On Apr. 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion, which killed 11 men, caused the rig to sink into the deep and started a devastating oil leak from the well. Prior to it being capped three months afterward,...

Since the creation of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the federal government has had the authority to protect bodies of water throughout the U.S. from pollution. This traditionally included wetlands, which play a vital role in feeding open bodies of water like rivers and lakes. However, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in May, this federal protection has been removed from many crucial wetlands across the country, the Guardian reports. What happened? According to the Guardian, Michael and Chantell Sackett are Idaho residents who bought a half-acre lot in 2004 near Priest Lake, one of the state’s largest bodies...

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5–4 decision reined in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) effort to impose extensive federal land use regulation through its broad interpretation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The decision in the case of Sackett v. EPA turns on the question of the proper definition of the term "the waters of the United States" (WOTUS). Interestingly, all the justices concurred in the judgment that plaintiffs Michael and Chantell Sackett's property and actions were not covered by the CWA. In the case, the Sacketts had purchased property near Priest Lake, Idaho, and began backfilling the lot...

The State of Texas has blocked the Biden administration’s Clean Water Act rule in federal court, the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Monday morning. “Big victory against Biden: Last night a federal court blocked the Admin’s radical ‘waters of the US’ rule, which imposes a leftist environmental agenda on Texas, crushing new regs, and oppressive economic costs. I will always fight to keep Biden’s boots off the necks of Texans!” Paxton tweeted.

The House of Representatives voted 227-198 Thursday to overturn the Biden administration’s “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, which has been heavily criticized for broadening the definition of what are considered “navigable waters” subject to federal regulation under the Clean Water Act. Republicans say the rule places a costly burden on landowners, ranchers, and farmers by claiming regulatory control over lands containing small streams and wetlands. All but one Republican, Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, voted to overturn the rule, with nine Democrats joining. The resolution was introduced early February and co-sponsored by 170 members of Congress. “President Biden’s new...

It could be a coincidence—or it could foretell an historic Supreme Court term. The Court has now accepted two cases for this term that could threaten the essential legal underpinnings of the federal administrative state. The first is American Hospital Association v. Becerra, in which the plaintiff questions the Chevron doctrine—a rule fashioned by the Supreme Court itself in 1984 that requires lower federal courts to defer to administrative agencies’ interpretation of their delegated authorities, where the statute is ambiguous and the agency’s decision is “reasonable.” Under this rubric, lower federal courts have given administrative agencies wide leeway to interpret...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it has overturned the approval of a massive flood-control project in the south Mississippi Delta that officials said was erroneously greenlit in the final days of the Trump administration. In a letter to the Army for Civil Works, EPA officials said the past administration's November 2020 decision to approve the Yazoo Pumps Project was in violation of the Clean Water Act and “failed to reflect the recommendations from the career scientists and technical staff.”

A federal court on Thursday nixed a Trump-era rule that limited state and tribal authority to block projects that could impact their waters, including pipelines. California Federal Judge William Alsup vacated the rule and sent it back to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for further proceedings. The Clinton appointee's move came after the agency asked the court to remand the issue back to the EPA amid litigation filed by states and environmental groups... ...The now-vacated rule had limited states’ authorities to block projects by giving them a strict one-year time limit to do so before the federal government could decide...

Sioux Falls, South Dakota; : A third-generation farmer filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is unlawfully preventing him from farming one of his fields. In 2011, a division of the Department of Agriculture ruled that a small seasonal mud puddle on Arlen Foster’s farm is protected by federal law as a wetland. Even though the federal government has no authority to regulate such puddles, the department is forcing Foster to choose between productively using his field or participating in federal programs for farmers, like crop insurance. “The government lacks the authority to insist that he...

For nearly a decade, California farmer Jack LaPant was the target of an investigation and prosecution by the United States Army, who alleged that LaPant violated the Clean Water Act by growing a wheat crop to feed his cattle. Earlier this year, LaPant was able to settle the case to get the Army out of his hair, but the settlement required him to give the Army more than $1 million in money and land value. This, despite the fact that the government never proved a single allegation in court.

Agency Gives Utilities a Break, Reclassifies ‘Cooling Ponds’ as ‘Waste Treatment Systems’ Alice Fleming Guzick and her husband, Bill, have been living at their lake house on Lake Keowee in South Carolina since the coronavirus pandemic started. She likes to paddleboard and kayak there. Trump and Radical Republicans stripped environmental protections from lakes such as the one Guzick lives on when the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers repealed former President Barack Obama’s Clean Water Rule and replaced it. Environmentalists say the change removes lakes such as Lake Keowee from being protected under the landmark Clean Water Act, which...

The Trump administration gutted a key portion of the Clean Water Act on Monday, limiting states’ ability to block controversial pipeline projects that cross their waterways. The final rule from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) targets Section 401 of the law, which lets states halt pipelines that risk hurting their water quality. It’s been a target of President Trump, who last April ordered the agency to accelerate and promote the construction of pipelines and other important energy infrastructure. “Today, we are following through on President Trump’s Executive Order to curb abuses of the Clean Water Act that have held our...

No one told Jack LaPant that he could be in violation of the Clean Water Act for farming his own land. That’s mostly because the federal law includes a clear exemption for “normal” farming activities. But it’s also because the government officials LaPant consulted didn’t view overturned dirt that has been tilled and plowed as pollution. In 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers, which administers the Clean Water Act with the Environmental Protection Agency, began legal action against LaPant for plowing he did in 2011 to plant wheat on a ranch property he owned in Northern California. But in March...

The name of a Navy veteran may be cleared after he was convicted, fined, and imprisoned for digging ponds in a wooded area near his Montana home, to supply water in case of fire. The Supreme Court has vacated a lower court ruling against Joe Robertson, who was sent to federal prison and ordered to pay $130,000 in restitution through deductions from his Social Security checks. Any definitive legal victory for Robertson would be posthumous, since he died March 18 at age 80. But his lawyers describe the Supreme Court’s action as a “big win” for Robertson’s widow, Carrie, who...

Full title: Judicial Watch: Supreme Court Moves to Overturn Conviction of Veteran Fined and Jailed for Digging Ponds on his Rural Montana Property SCOTUS overturned decision upholding Robertson’s conviction and remanded the case so that the indictment could be dismissed and the lien cancelled(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the Supreme Court of the United States has overturned a lower court decision affirming the conviction of Joseph Robertson, a 78-year-old veteran now deceased who was sentenced to prison for digging ditches on his rural Montana property to protect the area surrounding his home from wildfires. Judicial Watch had...

President Donald Trump will announce an executive order during a trip to Texas on Wednesday that could make it harder for states to scuttle pipelines and other energy projects based on concerns about their impact on water quality. Trump has made it a priority to expand energy development in the United States, in part by rolling back government regulations. Pointing to Washington state and New York, Republican lawmakers have complained about states using the permitting process to stop energy projects. A senior administration official told reporters there are problems with the way some states are interpreting Section 401 of the...

The Trump administration is poised to withdraw federal protections for countless waterways and wetlands across the country, making good on President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to weaken landmark water rules long resented by some developers, farmers and oil, gas and mining executives. Environmental groups said the Trump administration proposal would have a sweeping impact on how the country safeguards the nation’s waterways, scaling back not just a 2015 Obama administration interpretation of federal jurisdiction over the nation’s waters, but also how federal agencies enforce the 1972 Clean Water Act. […] The changes would affect what waterways and wetlands fall under...

A new math course at Penn State University this semester has a bizarre focus on Hillary Clinton’s “strong character.” According to a report from Campus Reform, a new math course at Penn State University focuses on everything besides math. Professor Marc Fabbri’s “Finite Mathematics” course covers everything from Hillary Clinton’s “strong character” to the “cultural intolerance” to President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Clean Water Act. On the Penn State website, Fabbri’s course is described as an “introduction to logic, sets, probability.” But students who took Fabbri’s new course last spring say that the course is focused on other topics. Take for...

Both U.S. Senators from North Dakota were on hand as Mr. Trump signed his order to eliminate the Obama Administration's Waters of the U.S. rule WASHINGTON D.C. — President Trump has signed another executive order that will impact farmers and ranchers. Both U.S. Senators from North Dakota were on hand as Mr. Trump signed his order to eliminate the Obama Administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule. Senator Heitkamp says it’s time for Congress to act by giving the EPA direction on what water is jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act. Senator Hoeven says the rule was a regulatory overreach that...

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign a measure as early as Tuesday 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 late 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. The rule was finalized by the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in May 2015, and was blocked by a...