The Trump administration is cracking down on blue state abuses of federal environmental legislation that impedes the White House’s push for American energy dominance.
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to issue a memo on Thursday clarifying the authority of state and tribal governments under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. In recent years, states like New York and Washington have invoked that section to kill major fossil fuel projects, despite those states’ high energy prices.
“Under the last Administration, certain states attempted to leverage the Clean Water Act to undercut projects that would boost national and regional development and unleash American energy resources,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. “With this memorandum, EPA is reinforcing the limits on Clean Water Act section 401 certification to support energy, critical mineral, and…