GAO Finds EPA Violated Law in WOTUS Rulemaking

Earlier this week, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office or GAO found that the Environmental Protection Agency violated federal law in promoting the agency’s “waters of the United States” rule. The decision found the EPA engaged in covert propaganda and grassroots lobbying to support the WOTUS rule. NCBA Environmental Counsel Scott Yager explains what this ruling will mean for the EPA.
Yager: “In practical terms, the EPA will need to make a report to Congress and the president saying how they used these funds in appropriately and they will have account for taxpayers dollars spent here. Here is what it does for us — we’re going to continue to call on Congress to defund the WOTUS. This GAO legal opinion is the latest information we’ve received that this rule is flawed and it needs to be fixed and we need Congress to do that.”
Yager continues with what this opinion might mean to the pending lawsuits.
Yager: “The courts have sited similar concerns in the various lawsuits out there. In the sixth circuit there is a nationwide stay that remains in affect. But I want to emphasis that the stay is only temporary. Last Tuesday, the sixth circuit held a hearing on whether it has subject matter jurisdiction to hear the various WOTUS lawsuits and we are waiting for them to make a decision on that. This news here with the GAO legal opinion strengths our case that the EPA violated the law in how they promoted the WOTUS rule.”