Ag leaders are reacting to the new WOTUS rule, which narrows the scope of federal protections. The industry has been waiting ever since the Supreme Court Sackett ruling earlier this year.
House Ag Committee Chair GT Thompson released a statement saying, “EPA’s bureaucratic sleight-of-hand circumventing the rulemaking process leaves the door open to agency abuse and regulatory and legal uncertainty for American agriculture. Our nation’s farmers, ranchers, and landowners are excellent stewards of their land and understand that clean water and private property rights can coexist without burdensome overreach from the federal government.”
Other groups are not happy with the new rule. The American Farm Bureau says they are pleased that the significant nexus test has been eliminated, but say the agency ignored concerns raised by farmers across the country. The National Corn Growers Association says EPA failed to pen the process to public comment and instead released a rule that does not fully respect the holdings from the Supreme Court’s decision on WOTUS.
