Legislation & Regulation
Legislative and Regulatory Update
January 2022 by Scott Harn
• WOTUS definition is changing again
It seems that the definition of “Waters of the United States” changes every four years or so, and we now have another proposal from the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA to revise the definition yet again to increase restrictions on land owners under the guise of “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.”
You can view the latest proposed changes online at https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OW-2021-0602-0001. Public comments are due by February 7, 2022.
• BLM HQ on the move again
Tracy Stone-Manning, the former member of eco-terrorist group Earth First and now confirmed director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), announced she is moving forward with plans to return BLM headquarters from Grand Junction, Colorado to Washington, DC.
Former BLM acting director William Perry Pendley had moved much of the hierarchy out of DC, relocating staff and supervisors at field offices throughout the Western States and at the new HQ in Colorado, putting them closer to the public lands they oversee and the public they serve. The move out west was also a huge cost savings for taxpayers due to the much lower cost of living as compared to DC.
Representative Manweller Lends a Hand in Washington State
We're done watching as an unelected and unchecked bureaucracy, with rule-making authority, enforcement powers, and seemingly bottomless budgets abuses citizens at will.
New Mining Regulations in Maine
Renewed interest in mining of gold, silver, copper and other metals in Aroostook County's Bald Mountain triggered 2012 legislation requiring the overhaul of the state's two-decade-old mining regulations.
Because I Said So
Like all federal judges, he swore an oath to perform his duties “impartially… under the Constitution and laws of the U.S.” Nothing in those documents gives Judge Morris authority to order the BLM to work with non-government organizations (the same ones that filed the lawsuit in question) to alter America’s use of energy.
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Idaho maintains control
• Enough wilderness already
• Restraining the EPA
• Republicans on the attack
• DOI requests hard rock royalty
• New Forest Service plans
• Bill supporting small miners
• New mercury emission regs
• Latest info on California suction dredging
Legislative and Regulatory Update
- Administration issues proposals to fix mining access and permitting
- Online “webinar” and request for comments for proposed Forest Service NEPA revisions
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Additional access restrictions proposed in Arizona
• Oregon senators introduce bill to place state rivers and streams off-limits
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Bill to address Forest Service Travel Management restrictions
• Suction gold dredging challenge finally under way
• EPA nullification bill fails in Idaho
• Another bad bill
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