The Supreme Court’s choice is a clear threat to clean water protection and the Biden administration’s environmental agenda. The EPA has already begun the process of writing new rules on the Clean Water Act’s implementation, but those efforts are at risk of being waylaid by this court. I
John – The Supreme Court is moving fast to limit the Clean Water Act’s protections with a new case they just agreed to take up. The build-up for this case has been coming for years.
In 2006, a couple brought their case to the Supreme Court to determine whether or not they could build a home along wetlands that the EPA deemed under the protection of the Clean Water Act. The case resulted in then-Justice Kennedy creating the Rapanos test, over the objections of the other conservative justices. This test is to determine whether or not wetlands were protected under the Clean Water Act based on whether the wetlands in question were a “significant nexus” to other bodies of water.
Businesses and developers have ever since sought to remove the Rapanos test and have the courts detail strict, narrow rules for the Clean Water Act instead. And as of this week, they have their best opportunity yet with a 6-3 conservative majority that is poised to strike right at the heart of the Clean Water Act.
This case will determine what precisely constitutes “waters of the United States” and every sign points to the Supreme Court limiting the definition.
If this happens, our biggest hope is for immediate environmental legislation in Congress to specifically codify the environmental safeguards and policies that we’ve been able to take for granted for decades.
The Supreme Court’s choice is a clear threat to clean water protection and the Biden administration’s environmental agenda. The EPA has already begun the process of writing new rules on the Clean Water Act’s implementation, but those efforts are at risk of being waylaid by this court.
It is very telling and worrisome that this ultra-conservative court agreed to hear this case even before Biden’s EPA finalized their regulations. This is a bad omen for the future of environmental policies that could come before this court.
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