(Getty Images)
The EPA just finalized one of the biggest land grabs in American history.
Under the Clean Water Rule, all "tributaries" will be categorically regulated by the federal government. Tributaries — which quite literally mean anything with a bed, banks and an "ordinary high water mark" — are now under federal control. Not my words; the Environment Protection Agency's (EPA). This includes ditches and less.
Under the same rule, the word "adjacent" is stretched from the Supreme Court's definition of actually "abutting" what most Americans regard as a real water of the United States to anything "neighboring," "contiguous," or "bordering" a real water, terms which are again stretched to include whole floodplains and riparian areas. Floodplains are typically based on a 100-year flood, but a separate regulation would stretch that to a 500-year flood.
And, finally, under the rule, the EPA cynically throws in a catch-all "significant nexus" test meant as a shout out to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion in Rapanos v. United States when, in fact, the EPA's rule makes a mockery of Kennedy's opinion and of no fewer than three Supreme Court rulings.
Under the three approaches, no land or "water" is beyond the reach of the federal government, never mind the traditional understanding of private property or state and local control of land use.
Farmers, ranchers, dairymen and others, on and off the farm, are in a widespread panic with the finalization of this rule because not only does it allow the EPA onto their land, but it throws the gate wide open to environmental group-led citizen lawsuits that promise to carry the rule's reach beyond what even the EPA had envisioned. That is because even though the EPA may have intended to show some restraint in the exercise of its new found powers, the rule itself is virtually boundless and citizen suits are controlled only by the rule. This rule carries with it fines under the law to the tune of $37,500 per day, but comes with absolutely no clarity for farmers as to what side of the law they are now on.
I started work as an legislative assistant covering agriculture for Sen. John Tower (R) of Texas back in 1971 before serving nearly 20 years in Congress, and I have never seen a bigger land grab by the federal government than the Clean Water Rule.
Like Tower, and like most Texans serving in Congress today, I was consistently ranked as one of the most conservative members in Congress. And that is why it appalls me that instead of libertarian groups announcing that their No. 1 objective is to overturn this rule and protect the private property rights of every American citizen — which is at the very heart of a free society — these groups were reported on June 24 in The Washington Post as saying that their No. 1 objective is, of all things, killing U.S. sugar policy.
No comments:
Post a Comment