One of the linchpins of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was that he would eliminate some regulations on business operations — including WOTUS, a move supported by construction industry leaders.
As the regulation’s standards were being crafted, farmers and developers said the Obama administration’s unclear definition of the rule’s scope would qualify seemingly insignificant water sources under federal jurisdiction. The proposed return to pre-2015 language, in turn, comes as a relief to the rule’s challengers who hope the revamped rule could ease project cost and time constraints they say are imposed by today’s regulations…read more