Staff Reports
On Monday, a federal judge prevented the EPA's extreme "Waters of the United States" regulation from going into effect, giving Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton a significant win against the Biden administration. This plan, which aims to impose a far-left environmental strategy on the Lone Star State, would have led to crushing additional restrictions and onerous economic expenses.
Big victory against Biden: Last night a federal court blocked the Admin’s radical “waters of the US” rule, which imposes a leftist environmental agenda on Texas, crushing new regs, and oppressive economic costs. I will always fight to keep Biden’s boots off the necks of Texans! pic.twitter.com/zp2Wv17bhC
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) March 20, 2023
Paxton complained to the EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers in January, citing the Clean Water Act's need for federal licenses to release pollutants into "navigable waterways." A further claim made in the case was that the Biden administration's amendment of the "waters of the United States" rule would unconstitutionally extend federal jurisdiction beyond that granted by Congress in the CWA, intruding on state sovereignty and the rights of the states and their residents.
The left's climate agenda is nothing but a radical and destructive attempt at total federal control. Good for Texas. https://t.co/J4QrXlS3HC
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) March 20, 2023
On December 30, 2022, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers released their final "Revised Definition of 'Waters of the United States'" regulation, and on January 18, 2023, the Federal Register published it. The law was scheduled to go into effect on March 20, 2023. Regrettably, the US Army Corps of Engineers' "assertion of enlarged power over non-navigable, intrastate waterways that are not materially related to navigable, interstate waters" was denied by the Supreme Court in Rapanos v. United States.
In their joint announcement about the rule change, the EPA and US Army highlighted the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes. This decision said that Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army a "broad of federal regulatory authority" in the Clean Water Act and expected them to deal with the "inherent difficulties of defining precise bounds to regulated waters."
In February, Attorney General Paxton said that the Clean Waters Act was being used to "put the federal government in charge of states like Texas." He said, "The people who wrote this illegal rule are environmental extremists who don't care about our sovereignty or our natural resources." For this Administration, this isn't about protecting the environment. It's about putting the federal government in charge of states like Texas, and we won't let that happen.
The Biden administration’s attempt to impose its radical environmental agenda on Texas has been blocked by a federal court, thanks to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts. This is a major victory for Texans who value their state sovereignty and oppose oppressive economic costs. It is yet another example of how conservative values are being defended against liberal overreach. We must remain vigilant against any further attempts by the Biden administration to impose its leftist agenda on our state.
