14 September 2023
By RACHEL FRAZIN AND ZACK BUDRYK

Rising Clip: Breaking down Speaker McCarthy and Rep. Gaetz's heated debate
EPA expands state authority to block pipelines. EPA gives states more authority to block projects under Clean Water Act

The Biden administration is making it easier for states to block infrastructure projects like pipelines for water quality reasons.

© AP Photo

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule on Thursday that allows states or tribes to consider any aspect of the project with the potential to impact water quality as it weighs whether to block a project.

“Our focus was on restoring [state] authority and providing an efficient path to critical infrastructure projects in this country,” Radhika Fox, the EPA’s top water official, told reporters on Thursday.

It’s the reversal of a Trump-era rule that limited the basis on which a state could block a project.

The Trump rule came after blue states had used their Clean Water Act authority to block two high-profile projects: a coal shipping port in Washington state and a gas pipeline that would have run between Pennsylvania and New York.

The Democratic governors of North Carolina, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Mexico and Maryland praised the new Biden administration rule in written statements shared by the EPA.

FILE – A car drives along a dirt road near Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. A Native American tribe in Arizona has reached a deal with the U.S. government not to use some of its Colorado River water rights in return for $150 million and funding for a pipeline project. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

The Biden administration is giving states and tribes more authority to block certain projects, like pipelines that run through their waters, on water quality grounds.

A new final rule from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) undoes the Trump administration’s efforts to limit states’ authority to block such projects.

Specifically, the new Biden rule allows a state or tribe to consider any aspect of the project with the potential to impact water quality as it weighs whether to approve or block a project.

“Our focus was on restoring [state] authority and providing an efficient path to critical infrastructure projects in this country,” Radhika Fox, the EPA’s top water official, told reporters on Thursday.

Several Democratic governors praised the rule in a statement issued by the Biden administration.

“EPA’s action will better protect New Mexico’s water quality at a time when federal and state protections are needed most,” said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D).

The Clean Water Act gives states the authority to approve or reject projects that run through their waters.

The Trump administration sought to limit that authority, a decision that came after Democrat-led states used the law to block two major projects: a coal shipping port in Washington state and a pipeline that would have run between Pennsylvania and New York.

In addition to the change regarding pollution, the Biden administration also said its rule encourages “early engagement” between industry and the states or tribes.

It would do so by enabling states and tribes to meet with companies who are trying to get a project approved before the clock starts on the one-year deadline to make a decision.