#cleanwateract — Public Fediverse posts

What #SCOTUS just did to #broadband, the #RightToRepair, the #environment, and more

By overturning Chevron, the Supreme Court has declared war on an administrative state that touches everything from net neutrality to climate change.

By Verge Staff
Jun 28, 2024

"Since the New Deal era, the bulk of the functioning US government is the administrative state — think the acronym soup of agencies like the #EPA, #FCC, #FTC, #FDA, and so on. Even when Capitol Hill is not mired in deep dysfunction, the speed at which Congress and the courts operate no longer seems suitable for modern life. Both industry and ordinary people look to the administrative state, rather than legislators, for an immediate answer to their problems. And since 1984, the administrative state largely ran on one Supreme Court precedent: #ChevronUSA, Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (#NRDC).

"That decision has now been overturned. Admin law is not always interesting, but the simple fact is when it comes to the day-to-day, agencies are the most impactful part of the federal government. No single policy writer at The Verge can fully articulate the impact of Friday’s Supreme Court decision and how profound its effects will be. The administrative state touches everything around us: net neutrality, climate change, #CleanAir and water, and what scant #ConsumerProtections we have.

"While the practice had been in place for decades before, it came to be known as Chevron deference after a 1984 case: Chevron v. NRDC. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Chevron, allowing the #RonaldReagan administration’s #industry-friendly Environmental Protection Agency to stick with a lax interpretation of the #CleanAirAct.

"Over the years, Chevron deference has enabled federal agencies to tackle all sorts of issues that legislators have yet to cover — from addressing greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change to regulating broadband access. As the conservative legal movement to disempower the administrative state grew, Chevron deference became — in certain circles — shorthand for #GovernmentOverreach.

"Before its decision to overturn Chevron, the Supreme Court had already dealt a blow to federal agencies’ regulatory authority by strengthening the 'major questions' doctrine in its 2022 decision in West Virginia v. EPA. According to the major questions doctrine, a federal agency shouldn’t have the leeway to craft regulation on an issue of major national significance if Congress hasn’t explicitly allowed it to do so in legislation.

"The same bloc of six #conservative justices that formed the majority in West Virginia v. EPA also overturned the longstanding precedent of #RoeVsWade — an even older case than Chevron — in the same month. When two cases calling for an end to Chevron deference worked their way up to the Supreme Court this year, the writing was on the wall — and once again, those same six justices overturned Chevron.

Impacts:
- #NetNeutrality
- The #environment and efforts to fight #ClimateChange
- Regulating #BigTech
- #TechWorkers on #visas and #immigration law
- #Labor and #WorkersRights
- The right to repair, #copyright, #PatentLaw, and the Apple Watch ban

https://www.theverge.com/24188365/chevron-scotus-net-neutrality-dmca-visa-fcc-ftc-epa

#DMCA #Chevron #PowerGrab #CorporateFascism #ChevronDeference #WaterIsLife #CleanWaterAct #SCOTUS #ScotusIsCorrupt #ScrotusSunday #ImpeachJusticeThomas #ImpeachJusticeAlito #KochBrothers

A Comment on the Aquila Back Forty Wetland Permit

Earlier this morning, I sent this comment on the Aquila Resources Back Forty Wetland Permit to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Public comments may be submitted here until February 2nd.

To the MDEQ:

You have probably already received a number of comments on the Back Forty Mine wetland permit application from people who live out of state, as I do. Some of those opposed to sulfide mining on the Menominee River live on the Wisconsin side, just across or downstream from the proposed mine site. Others, across the country and around the world, are deeply concerned about the cumulative effects the current leasing, exploration, and sulfide mining boom around Lake Superior will have, and are alarmed to see federal and state regulatory agencies abdicating their responsibilities to the American public in order to do the bidding of foreign mining companies.

Denying the wetland permit is the only prudent and responsible course for MDEQ to take.

As the organization American Rivers noted when it placed the Menominee River on its list of “most endangered” rivers in 2017, the Aquila Resources Back Forty project poses a “significant threat” of acid mine drainage to the river, and to the “cultural and natural resources of the Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, and the Great Lakes Region.” Allowing Aquila to destroy or compromise area wetlands to construct its mine will only heighten the risk of large scale environmental catastrophe.

The risk is compounded by both regulatory and scientific uncertainty. As you are well aware, the Menominee Tribe maintains that the MDEQ lacks authority to issue this permit, because under provisions of the Clean Water Act the Menominee River and its wetlands are federal waters. This question remains unsettled. In the meantime, a third party, independent review of Aquila’s wetland permit application found errors and inconsistencies regarding the company’s findings on groundwater drawdown and the mine’s feasibility analysis. The wetland permit application you are considering is either flawed, because the people who filed it are incompetent, or misleading, because they have something to hide.

Deceit might be Aquila’s best strategy at this point. The Back Forty project has no claim to social license — none. The Menominee and other Wisconsin tribes have been adamant in their opposition. Local residents are overwhelmingly opposed as well. Of the 90 people who had the opportunity to speak at the January 23rd public hearing in Stephenson, only 4 could muster an argument for the mine, mainly because they put stock in the vague promise of “jobs” made by mining proponents. The rest — 86 out of 90, or 95 percent — stood in opposition to the mine.

Even if Aquila is not deliberately misleading the MDEQ and the public, the Canadian company has demonstrated time and again that it is not a responsible steward of Michigan or Menominee lands. In archaeological surveys of the region, for instance, Aquila claims to have uncovered nothing of “historical significance.” That is telling. These surveys have found nothing because they fail, or refuse to see, the significant Menominee history and culture that is right in front of their eyes. As tribal members have made repeatedly clear, Menominee history, ancestry, and culture begin and end in the river, the land, and the forest. What is historically significant or meaningful is not merely a collection of artifacts; it is a way of life and a deep connection to place. The Back Forty Mine threatens to destroy that connection.

In sum, the wetland permit application is flawed, the company has no social license to operate, and allowing the Back Forty to go forward would violate the public trust.

Postscript: On Monday, 4 June, Michigan DEQ Director Heidi Grether granted this wetlands permit, despite the DEQ’s own findings that the Aquila Resources project will likely cause “an unacceptable disruption to the aquatic resources of the State…and that the activities associated with the project are not consistent with the permitting criteria for an acceptable impact to the resources regulated under Parts 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, and Part 303, Wetlands Protection.” The permit DEQ issued — over its own objections — includes 28 pages of special conditions. It’s unclear why the DEQ did not simply deny the permit, as its findings warranted and in keeping with EPA objections to the Aquila application. More here.

#AmericanRivers #AquilaResources #BackFortyMine #BackFortyProject #CleanWaterAct #culturalResources #environmentalStewardship #federalWaters #historicalSignificance #history #MDEQ #MenomineeRiver #MenomineeTribe #MichiganDepartmentOfEnvironmentalQuality #mining #mostEndangeredRivers #publicHearing #PublicTrust #UNDRIP #UnitedNationsDeclarationOnIndigenousRights #UpperPeninsula #Water #WatersOfTheUnitedStates #wetlands #WOTUS