Trump aims to leverage Clean Water Act to speed up pipeline construction

According to E&E News by Politico, The Trump Administration has taken recent action to leverage the Clean Water Act in order to ramp up gas pipeline construction across the U.S.

The Clean Water Act historically protects bodies of water from pollution, including from oil and gas operations. President Trump signed a slew of executive orders in his first week in office. One of his first actions was to declare a national energy emergency, in which he ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to use emergency authority to work around typical water protection measures and speed up pipeline construction.

Environmentalists call Trump’s actions misguided, stating that the Army Corps does not have the emergency authority required for such action. The Army Corps is legally required to approve any projects that discharge waste into U.S. bodies of water. However, their emergency authority is typically enacted when a situation involves significant risk to life or property and seldom do they get involved when it’s a controversial or partisan issue.

The White House and the Army Corps declined to comment, according to E&E News. Despite President Trump’s controversial tactics, the majority of industry supporters agree that ramping up pipeline construction in anticipation of a surge in energy demand is the right move not only for the oil and gas companies, but for American consumers.

 

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