Inside EPA is reporting that yet another critical EPA rulemaking is now being delayed indefinitely. This time it’s the agency’s rulemaking to codify a draft guidance clarifying whether Clean Water Act protections apply to wetlands and other marginal waters.
EPA had projected on its online rulemaking gateway that it expected to issue a proposed rule this month. In the recent Issue Alert that CPR President Rena Steinzor and I wrote, we were skeptical about this deadline, because the EPA has not yet even sent a draft proposal to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for centralized review—a process that often takes several months, and in some cases well over a year.
The Inside EPA article notes that the EPA’s rulemaking gateway was changed at some point since March 5th, so that it now provides no deadline for issuing a proposal. The article also says that Ellen Gilinsky, senior policy adviser for EPA’s Office of Water, said at an event on Monday that “We're continuing to work with the Corps on a rulemaking, but we have no schedule right now.”
The rulemaking has drawn fierce opposition by the agricultural and oil and gas development industries, among others, as well as by their allies in Congress, because it would effectively expand protections for these waterbodies, which provide such invaluable ecosystem services as controlling non-point source pollution, preventing flooding, and providing critical habitat to endangered and migratory species. The rule will eliminate the regulatory uncertainty that has cropped up following a muddled Supreme Court opinion, which has caused drops in enforcement and protection of our waters. Ironically, industry and congressional Republicans blame just such regulatory uncertainty for holding back the economy, as part of their crusade against critical safeguards.
This latest development is consistent with the broad findings of our Issue Alert—namely, that the Obama Administration has shut down much of its effort to craft new safeguards to protect people and the environment, at least until after the election. The Issue Alert provided an update on a white paper issued in April of 2011, in which several CPR Member Scholars and staff identified 12 critical regulatory actions then under development that were in danger of not being completed during the current presidential term. The Issue Alert found that the vast majority of these regulatory actions had been subjected to new delays in the past few months, and that, if these delays persisted, only parts of two of these regulatory actions would be completed before the November elections. Of course, regulations completed at the tail end of the President's term, would be vulnerable to reversal next year, should the President not be reelected.
Showing 2,825 results
James Goodwin | March 9, 2012
Inside EPA is reporting that yet another critical EPA rulemaking is now being delayed indefinitely. This time it’s the agency’s rulemaking to codify a draft guidance clarifying whether Clean Water Act protections apply to wetlands and other marginal waters. EPA had projected on its online rulemaking gateway that it expected to issue a proposed rule […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | March 8, 2012
In 1975, Indiana lawmakers joined a small but growing group of state legislatures passing aggressive medical malpractice “reforms.” Indiana’s law capped damages that victims of medical malpractice can recover at $500,000 and eliminated damages for pain-and-suffering altogether, Frank Cornelius, a lobbyist for the Insurance Institute of Indiana, played a role in helping pass this legislation. […]
| March 7, 2012
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum, the case asking whether corporations can be liable in federal court for violations of international human rights law. In the decision under review, the Second Circuit – unlike every other circuit court to consider the question – had held that they […]
Daniel Farber | March 7, 2012
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld a district court ruling that the federal government is liable for damage from the Katrina storm surge that went up the MRGO canal into the city. As I read the opinion, it is limited in three ways. First, it is […]
Ben Somberg | March 6, 2012
On November 7 of last year, EPA sent the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) a rather important proposed rule – one that will, in some way, limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. The Greenhouse Gas New Source Performance Standard for Electric Generating Units for New Sources has now been […]
Robert Verchick | March 5, 2012
The BP Oil Spill case settled! Well, part of it. The smaller part. But, still, we must count this a victory for U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, whose reported 72 million pages of assigned reading will inevitably be shaved down. (Does this man have an iPad?) On Friday evening the court announced that BP had […]
Rena Steinzor | March 2, 2012
The toll: An estimated 6,500 to 17,967 premature deaths, 9,867 non-fatal heart attacks, 3,947 cases of chronic bronchitis, and more than 2.3 million lost work and school days. That’s just a partial tally of the costs Americans will bear because of unjustified delays in two critical health and safety regulations. More broadly, the Administration’s Fall […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | February 28, 2012
A new Pew public opinion poll published last week shows substantial public support for specific types of regulation, but skepticism about regulation in general. While 70-89% of the public would either expand or keep current levels of five specific types of regulation, 52% say government regulation of business usually does more harm than good as […]
David Hunter | February 27, 2012
a(broad) perspective Today’s post is first in a series on a recent CPR white paper, Reclaiming Global Environmental Leadership: Why the United States Should Ratify Ten Pending Environmental Treaties. Each month, this series will discuss one of these ten treaties. Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels Adopted and Opened for Signature on June […]