In his latest newsletter, Seventh District Congressman Billy Long takes on the EPA.)
Two examples of the EPA’s actions making life harder for rural Americans is its New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) proposal for wood stoves and its work with the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) on a proposed expansion of the Clean Water Actas it relates to navigable waters.
The EPA has a record of increasingly attempting to impose harsh new rules with dubious or non-existent environmental benefits. The EPA’s NSPS proposal for wood burning stoves takes a harsh “technology forcing approach” which will eventually render 85 percent of wood burning stoves sold in the U.S. illegal. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to question EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. I questioned her on this proposal and expressed my frustration with how impractical the proposal is, especially for folks in Southwest Missouri. Specifically, I requested a list of stoves currently on the market which will meet the proposed standards so that if this ridiculous proposal comes into effect my constituents will know which stoves they can buy now which will comply with possible future rules. As of today, Administrator McCarthy has failed to produce the list. The EPA should not make it harder for families to heat their homes with wood stoves and ban the production of America’s current wood burning stoves. The EPA needs to bring common sense to its proposals.
The Clean Water Act (CWA) originally defined navigable waters as the waters of the United States. This definition was much broader than older definitions of navigable waters, which were limited to those waters which were “navigable-in-fact.” In order for a water to have qualified as navigable-in-fact, it needed to be navigable for the purpose of trade or travel. The broadened definition in the CWA caused confusion and led to lawsuits over increasingly burdensome regulations related to our nation’s waters. On March 25, 2014 the EPA and the Corps released a draft rule which would expand regulatory coverage under the CWA to seasonal and rain-dependent streams and wetlands near already protected rivers and streams. The agencies are also seeking public comments on how to expand regulatory coverage to other types of waters which are even less connected to currently protected waters.
In anticipation of this rule, H.R. 3377, the Defense of Environment and Property Act, was introduced in the House. This act would redefine “navigable waters” as waters that are navigable-in-fact, which effectively limits the application of the CWA to waterways used as highways for commerce over which trade and travel may be conducted. Additionally, it specifically exempts from federal jurisdiction streams which may only form when rain falls, prohibits the EPA and Corps from regulating or reinterpreting the definition of navigable waters without Congressional authorization, and returns the authority of waterways not under the jurisdiction of the CWA to states and local authorities. I believe this legislation will protect businesses and landowners from this regulatory overreach, which is why I am proud to cosponsor it.
Every citizen should be assured the air they breathe is clean and their drinking water is safe. However, over the last few decades the federal government has regulated the activities of the American people in increasingly minute detail. This micro-regulatory state is strangling businesses, preventing job creation and costing our economy hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars each year. Even worse, this degree of regulation is incompatible with a free people enjoying a limited representative government.
I have personally had to get a corps of engineers permit and it is a ridiculous process for no real purpose. they will put their boot on your throat if your don't comply.
ReplyDeletethe problem is the EPA regulators have been given too much unchecked power for too long by congress. they have become agenda driven instead of actually protecting the environment.
We keep going along with silly rules like regulations on emissions from lawnmowers, weed eaters and cow flatulence thinking that eventually the EPA will be satisfied but they never are.
The concept establishing a guardian for the environment was a good one but like all federal agencies the agency has been hi-jacked by kooks and extremists.
It only takes a cutting torch and welder to make a woodstove and many rural sw Missouri residences have access to them. Good luck trying to stop us EPA.