{"id":22776,"date":"2015-02-05T14:17:34","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T20:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=22776"},"modified":"2015-02-05T14:17:34","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T20:17:34","slug":"watch-oklahomas-inhofe-and-pruitt-spar-with-epa-over-waters-of-the-u-s-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/02\/05\/watch-oklahomas-inhofe-and-pruitt-spar-with-epa-over-waters-of-the-u-s-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Oklahoma&#8217;s Inhofe and Pruitt Spar With EPA Over &#8216;Waters of the U.S.&#8217; Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FYB8iQ-3sgo?start=872\" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p><p>A rare joint Congressional hearing in Washington Wednesday took up the issue of &#8220;Waters of the United States,&#8221; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency&#8217;s attempt to more clearly define which bodies of water qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act.<\/p><p>Republicans at the hearing \u2014 including Oklahoma\u2019s senior senator and state attorney general \u2014 are convinced the move is a vast overreach of the EPA\u2019s power that will place everything from ditches to farm ponds under government control.<\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>Administrator Gina McCarthy explained the EPA\u2019s action as a benign clarification of existing rules meant to <i>reduce<\/i> confusion for farmers and ranchers, not further burden them.<\/p><p>Senator Jim Inhofe wasn\u2019t buying it.<\/p><p>&#8220;Agencies can only carry out the authority that Congress gives them. They can\u2019t create it unilaterally, and that\u2019s what I believe is happening now,&#8221; Inhofe said in his opening remarks.<\/p><p>Later, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt weighed in, vowing a lawsuit if the rules are finalized in their current form. Watch the exchange below:<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S0vBuH6Yk9A?start=467\" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p><p>&#8220;To Administrator McCarthy, who appeared before you today, I say forgive the skepticism of the states,&#8221; Pruitt said. &#8220;These reassurances are from the same administration that said \u2018if you like your health insurance you can keep your health insurance.\u2019&#8221;<\/p><p>In September, J.D. Strong with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/09\/25\/confusion-fueling-oklahoma-outcry-over-epas-waters-of-the-united-states-rule\/\" target=\"_blank\">told StateImpact<\/a> he doesn\u2019t make a habit of bashing the EPA, and some clarification would be nice, but that this proposed rule doesn\u2019t do it.<\/p><p>StateImpact also spoke with the EPA Water Office&#8217;s Ken Kopocis for <a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/09\/25\/confusion-fueling-oklahoma-outcry-over-epas-waters-of-the-united-states-rule\/\" target=\"_blank\">that September 2014 story<\/a>, who said farmers&#8217; fears are unfounded, that most of their activities would be exempt from the rule, and that the proposed rule actually includes fewer waterways than are currently under federal control.<\/p><p>This all stems from <a title=\"FASlink\" href=\"http:\/\/fas.org\/sgp\/crs\/misc\/R43455.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Supreme Court rulings<\/a> in the early to mid-2000s:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It&#8217;s never been entirely clear which waterways are &#8216;waters of the U.S.&#8217; and get Clean Water Act protections. The current definition includes any waterway that, if polluted, would have a negative impact on interstate commerce.<\/p><p>&#8230;But U.S. Supreme Court justices in 2001 and 2006 said that&#8217;s not a good enough test. That&#8217;s why EPA is proposing a new one.<\/p><p>&#8230;Kopocis says the new rules\u00a0take into account the interconnected nature of waterways. He says, for example, you can\u2019t protect water in a river without fixing the pollution that comes in from its tributaries or adjacent wetlands.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>The EPA expects to finalize the rule this spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rare joint Congressional hearing in Washington Wednesday took up the issue of \u2018Waters of the United States.&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":8634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[554,499,316,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22776"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22800,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22776\/revisions\/22800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}