EPA likely to move to further limit federal protections for wetlands
Source: Associated Press
EPA likely to move to further limit federal protections for wetlands
By MICHAEL PHILLIS
Updated 2:29 PM EDT, March 12, 2025
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it will reconsider the reach of the nation’s bedrock clean water law and likely further limit the wetlands it covers, building on a Supreme Court decision two years ago that removed federal protections for significant areas.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said at agency headquarters in Washington that officials will listen to concerns from farmers and other groups worried about federal interference in how they use their land and then set limited, predictable and lasting rules defining which waterways the Clean Water Act protects.
President Donald Trump sought to shrink the law’s reach in his first term while prior Democratic administrations have expanded federal power to regulate the nation’s lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and oceans. That’s created drastic swings in how the law is interpreted and applied.
In the 2023 Supreme Court case Sackett v. EPA, the majority of justices largely agreed with the Trump administration’s limited approach. That decision departed from decades of federal rules governing the nation’s waterways.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/epa-trump-clean-water-act-wetlands-protection-021ff0aacd77b91c4b0e70bc5caedd06