Deregulatory measures advance in Congress

[Cara J]

Congress continues to utilize its authority under the Congressional Review Act to overturn federal environmental rules issued late during the Obama administration. President Trump signed H.J. Res. 38 on Feb. 16, overturning the Stream Protection Rule issued by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement on Dec. 20, 2016. The rule’s intent was to protect surface and groundwater, drinking water supplies, and fish and wildlife from the adverse impacts of surface coal mining operations and to avoid long-term pollution and the associated costs of water quality treatment. In addition to President Trump’s action on Feb. 16, the House passed H.J. Res. 69 with the intent to eliminate a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2016 rule that strictly limits predator control activities and prohibits several non-subsistence hunting methods on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska. If this joint resolution is also taken up and passed by the Senate, it will arrive on President Trump’s desk for signing. On Feb. 7, the House passed H.J. Res. 44 to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s Resource Management Planning Rule, or “Planning 2.0.” On Feb. 9, The Wildlife Society signed onto a letter  addressed to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa [...]

 

Read more: http://wildlife.org/deregulatory-measures-advance-in-congress/