The Supreme Court Has It Out for the Clean Water Act (and the Wetlands, Generally)It turns out that there were five votes on the Supreme Court t...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
It turns out that there were five votes on the Supreme Court to support the notion that the Clean Water Act doesn't say what it clearly says and doesn't mean what it clearly means. The carefully manufactured conservative majority cracked enough to let Justice Brett Kavanaugh, of all people, sneak away. But, on Thursday, Justice Sam Alito was able to corral the other five behind a ludicrous opinion with no basis in any law and even less basis in environmental science. The case was Sackett v. EPA and it dealt with the EPA's power to regulate not only the country's bodies of water, but the wetlands that are, as the Clean Water Act clearly states, adjacent to them. These wetlands play a vital role in the survival of the various rivers and lakes to which they are adjacent. They also are nature's own flood control devices. Hence, the EPA's clear intent to protect the wetlands as well as the main bodies of water. Alas, the authors of the law didn't bank on Alito's gift for the language arts. From The New York Times:
Writing for five justices, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said that the Clean Water Act does not allow the agency to regulate discharges into wetlands near bodies of water unless they have “a continuous surface connection” to those waters. The decision was a second major blow to the E.P.A.’s authority and to the power of administrative agencies generally. Last year, the court limited the E.P.A.’s power to address climate change under the Clean Air Act.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/05/26/supreme-court-clean-water-act-ruling-massachusetts-epa-wetlands-newsletter
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/05/25/supreme-court-decision-epa-clean-water-sacketts/11316317002/
Attached link
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a44007426/supreme-court-clean-water-act-alito-wetlandsTaxonomy
- Environment
- Environment Evaluation
- Environment Protection and Pollution control