News

Michigan attorney general says WOTUS is wrong

Michigan’s Attorney General says he’s going to continue to fight the Waters of the U.S. Rule after it was reinstated in 26 states including Michigan.

“We’ll continue to fight this because it’s wrong headed, it takes the absolutely wrong approach.”

Bill Schutte tells Brownfield he and a group of state Attorneys General filed suit against WOTUS in 2015 because it negatively impacts farmers.  “All it does is make incomes tougher, it hurts our exports, it impacts farming as a whole, we’ll prevail on this.”

Last month a district court judge reinstated the rule in 26 states, including Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, because administrative procedures were not followed.

South Carolina U.S. District Judge David Norton says federal agencies didn’t follow the public-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act when they suspended WOTUS earlier this year.  States including Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin are not impacted by the decision.

A group led by the American Farm Bureau has filed an injunction on the ruling.

President Trump’s suspension rule would’ve given the EPA until 2020 to complete a rewrite of WOTUS.

AUDIO: Interview with Attorney General Bill Schuette