Agricultural News
Inhofe Leads Joint Hearing Over WOTUS
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 10:42:53 CST
The House and Senate is making a significant step forward in cooperation. The two government bodies will hold their first joint hearing in eight years. U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe will be leading the hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Transportation Committee. The joint committee is especially concerned about the broad impact with the 'Waters of the US' proposal that came out nearly a year ago from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The joint hearing will have 75 witnesses and will likely be an all day process. Among those testifying will be representatives from the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, representing the Obama Administration. The second panel will consist of state, county and local government officials and representatives from private industry. One of those testifying will be Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.
Radio Oklahoma Network's Leslie Smith interviewed Senator Inhofe and AG Pruitt before the hearing. Click on the LISTENBAR below to listen to the full interview.
At issue is the effort by the EPA to redefine the regulatory term 'Waters of the US'. In taking out the words 'navigable waters' out of the definition, a lot of the regulatory control of the nation's natural resources would shift from states to the EPA. This would dramatically increase and expand EPA's jurisdiction and regulatory authority.
"This is what they do, they are busy 24 hours a day trying to take regulations, authority and jurisdiction away from the states and putting it into the Environmental Protection Agency," Inhofe said. "We've seen how damaging these can be."
Congress has not performed a cost-benefit analysis of the regulation, as the EPA has stated you can't put a dollar figure on the environment. Pruitt added the cost of this regulation is greater than any dollar figure.
"I think the real cost is the cost of loss of freedom and ability to use your property," Pruitt said. "This is property rights issue at its core. Ranchers and farmers, oil and gas and developers across the state, those individuals don't have to go to the EPA right now and get permission to do anything with their land and use the water on their land and the EPA is trying to change that. So, there are intangible costs here that are quite strong and quite costly, not the least of which is just the freedom for you to use the land as you see fit."
If the EPA does not retrace their steps, litigation will come. Oklahoma is leading a 16-state coalition to stop this proposal over EPA expanding their authority. Pruitt said they are ready to sue and try to get an injunction to stop EPA.
"Because it will affect every person in the state of Oklahoma that seeks to use their land," Pruitt said.
Currently the EPA is reviewing thousands of comments that were submitted on the 'WOTUS' proposal through the Federal Register. Inhofe said this hearing will have no impact on stopping EPA from finalizing this rule.
"We're in a little better position now, but we really have to work to keep that from happening," Inhofe said. "Desperation has set in, they are going to do all they can to overregulate the United States of America."
This is just one of numerous concerns Americans have with the regulations being issued by the EPA. As Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Inhofe said this will be the first of many hearings dealing with regulations.
"People are aware of a lot of things this President is doing to America, to the military and else, but they really don't know cost of overregulation," Inhofe said. "That's our job to make sure that people do."
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