CO2: 423.28 ppmIn a span of 11 months, the U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a one-two punch against the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to combat air and water pollution in twin rulings that cloud future EPA regulatory moves, according to legal experts.
Idaho couple Chantell and Mike Sackett have fought for years with the federal government over whether land they own includes a federally protected wetland.
In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court limits federal protection for wetlands, ruling that marshy areas are usually not covered by the Clean Water Act.
The Supreme Court is curtailing the federal government’s power to protect some wetlands. A decision Thursday weakens the Clean Water Act, a bedrock environmental law. It will make it easier for farmers and developers to fill, dig up or otherwise disturb wetlands near rivers, lakes and streams. Experts say it continues a pattern by the court’s conservative majority to limit environmental laws and federal agency powers. The court’s liberals say the majority got the political solution it wanted by ignoring what Congress wrote. States may become a battleground as they write their own laws, with red states and blue states taking different approaches to protecting wetlands.
As a Supreme Court ruling scales back federal water protections, a top California water regulator says the state will maintain stringent oversight of wetlands.