WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas attorney general, joined a bipartisan group of 22 state attorneys general petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court case dealing with the EPA’s runoff regulations.
A recent lower court’s decision allows the EPA to seize a state’s authority to regulate runoff from sources like farmlands. The attorneys general, under the leadership of Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, filed an amicus brief. The brief asks the Supreme Court to hear the case.
According to the bipartisan group, the EPA exceeded its authority to set a maximum daily load for water pollutants in the region. It allegedly granted itself total power to make hundreds of decisions that should be state decisions.
“Under the Clean Water Act, it is clear that states retain exclusive authority to regulate in this manner,” Rutledge said. “The EPA is once again exceeding its legal authority under the Clean Water Act and wants to micromanage how states meet federal water quality standards. If the EPA wishes to regulate these sources, it should seek authority from Congress to do so and should not act through unilateral regulations that violate the rights of states."