Washington Update From The U.S. Oil & Gas Association - 7.07.2023

The Supreme Court Term Ends: 

The Supreme Court’s term ended last week and we watched the Court working to limit the discretion of regulators and requiring Congress be much more specific as they write laws rather than defer to the unelected bureaucrats in the Executive Branch. There is no better example of that than the two-decade saga to rein in EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers' regulatory overreach under the Clean Water Act. 

When Congress passed the Clean Water Act, it prohibited the “discharge of any pollutant by any person” into “navigable waters” without a permit. That makes sense, but then Congress defined “navigable waters” as “waters of the United States.” But what should be considered “waters of the United States”? That is what regulatory agencies and the courts have been trying to define for the last 50 years. 

Unsurprisingly, EPA has stretched and stretched and stretched its regulatory authority to almost any wetlands or water in the United States. EPA employed the “glancing goose” test arguing that if migratory geese could see a water-filled pothole, EPA should be able to regulate it. We kid you not.