CEI Supports Congressional Action on WOTUS and STREAM Act

Today and tomorrow Congress will vote on measures to limit the federal government’s jurisdiction beyond the original intent of the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

As CEI previously stated, the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule is “an unprecedented power grab.” But beyond that, “the agency ignored long-standing precedent to orchestrate a campaign to support a rule it drafted—in essence lobbying itself possibly in breach of lobbying law—to create an illusion of massive public support, and EPA officials used private email accounts, in another apparent breach of the law, to do so.” In light of these egregious acts by the EPA, CEI supports passage of the CRA resolution of disapproval, S.J. Res. 22, of the WOTUS Rule.

CEI also supports passage of H.R. 1644, the STREAM Act. The STREAM Act would delay the Office of Surface Mining’s stream buffer zone rule until adequate scientific studies have been done. The rule is based on junk science and is merely a political tool contrived to stop coal mining.  

Related: Read CEI Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray’s analysis of  WOTUS in his National Review article “America’s Own FIFA: the EPA.”