Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe and other Republicans on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee say the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers are out of control when it comes to the Waters of the US Rule.
Inhofe chairs the committee and released a Majority Committee report detailing how the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers are interpreting and implementing their authority under the Clean Water act.
“This new majority committee report demonstrates in detail that the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, under the Obama administration, are running rogue,” said Inhofe. “Case studies in this report show that the Obama administration is already asserting federal control over land and water based on the concepts they are trying to codify in the WOTUS rule, even though the courts have put that rule on hold.”
He said it’s clear congress should not wait on the Supreme Court to make the decision “that this agency overreach is illegal.”
“This report should be evidence enough that it’s time for Democrats and Republicans to work together to rein in EPA and the Corps,” said the Senator. “It’s time to come together to protect farmers, ranchers, water utilities, local governments and contractors by giving them the clarity and certainty they deserve and stopping EPA and the Corps from eroding traditional exemptions.”
The report is entitled “From Preventing Pollution of Navigable and Interstate Waters to Regulating Farm Fields, Puddles and Dry Land: A Senate Report on the Expansion of Jurisdiction Claimed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act.”
A copy of the report was delivered Tuesday by Sen. Inhofe to eleven Senate Democrats who last year wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, expressing their concerns about WOTUS. In his letter to them, Inhofe called on them to live up to their commitment and work with the committee on legislation to end agency overreach.