EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vs. Trump

In his role as former President, Donald Trump did his best to overturn years of regulations in an effort to roll back the clock. Among his most egregious attempts were the attacks on environmental regulations that have kept our nation's natural resources in better shape than in the past. One highly publicized change was an attempt to narrow the definition of jurisdictional waters.

The original regulations were developed to address the draining loss (pun intended) of our nation's waterways. The former President decided those regulations hurt businesses and individuals wanting to "drain the swamps" (another intended pun) and get rid of inconveniently placed waterways that were stymying development. The result was the 2020 Corps regulations - seriously reducing waterway protections and creating more questions than previous versions.

With the Biden administration, the Corps was directed to go back and try again. The resulting Rule, published January 18, 2023 in the Federal Register (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-01-18/pdf/2022-28595.pdf) turns

the clock back on Mr. Trump's efforts and restores the protections of our waterways, along the way tightening some previous ambiguous definitions.