American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2018 - 27

set aside in January 2009 in American
Samoa.
Secretary Zinke also recommends creating three new national monuments:
* Badger-Two Medicine area, a
130,000-acre section of the Lewis and
Clark National Forest in northwestern
Montana;
* Camp Nelson, an 1863 Union Army
supply depot, training center and hospital
encompassing 4,000 acres in Kentucky;
and
* The Jackson, Ms., home of civil
rights leader Medgar Evers, who was the
first Mississippi field secretary for the
National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People.
Clean Power Plan
On Dec. 18, EPA took another step
toward rewriting President Obama's Clean
Power Plan by announcing an advanced
notice of proposed rule making to solicit
public input on "the next regulatory steps
to limit greenhouse gas emissions from
existing electric utility generating units
(EGUs)."
"We already have set in motion an assessment of the previous administration's
questionable legal basis in our proposed
repeal of the CPP," EPA Administrator
Scott Pruitt states in the announcement.
"We now can move forward to provide
regulatory certainty."
He adds, "Today's move ensures adequate
and early opportunity for public comment
from all stakeholders about the next steps
the agency may take to limit greenhouse
gases from stationary sources in a way that
properly stays within the law."
The announcement points out that the
ANOPR is a separate, but related, action
to EPA's Oct. 16 proposal to repeal the
CPP. In announcing that notice of proposed
rule making a few days ahead of its publication, Pruitt said, "We are committed
to righting the wrongs of the Obama administration by cleaning the regulatory
slate. Any replacement rule will be done
carefully, properly, and with humility by
listening to all those affected" (AOGR,
November 2017, pg. 28).
In announcing the December ANOPR,
EPA says it specifically is soliciting information on the proper roles of state and
federal governments in limiting emissions
from existing EGUs, as well as information
on systems of emission reduction applicable
at or to a power plant, information on
compliance measures, and information
on state planning requirements under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act.
Information on the ANOPR is available
at https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sourcesair-pollution/electric-utility-generatingunits-advance-notice-proposed.
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EPA, Corps Propose To Delay
Start Date Of WOTUS Deﬁnition
WASHINGTON-In a new legal effort
the agencies say will give them time to
reconsider, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers propose a two-year delay to
the effective date of the 2015 rule defining
"waters of the United States" for purposes
of Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction.
"This step will allow us to minimize
confusion as we continue to receive input
from across the country on how we should
revise the definition of the 'waters of the
United States,'" says EPA Administrator
Scott Pruitt.
The agencies point out this proposal
to delay the WOTUS rule is separate from
the two-step process they propose to take
to reconsider the 2015 rule. The comment
period for the two steps closed in September. EPA and the Corps say they are
working to review the comments and
holding listening sessions with stakeholders
as they develop a proposed Step 2 rule
that would revise the WOTUS definition.
The agencies published the "Clean
Water Rule: Definition of 'Waters of the
United States'" on June 29, 2015. The
rule had an effective date of Aug. 28,
2015, but according to EPA, the Clean
Water Rule did not include an applicability
date for applying the WOTUS definitions
established by the CWA. On Oct. 9, 2015,
the U.S. Court of Appeals for Sixth Circuit
stayed the rule pending legal action. EPA
says in the absence of a new applicability
date, it and the Corps will follow the
earlier regulatory definitions.
The CWA prohibits discharging pollutants to "navigable waters" except in
accordance with provisions of the act,
EPA notes. The act describes navigable
waters as "waters of the United States,
including the territorial seas." The Corps
administers the CWA's permitting program while EPA handles most of its
other provisions. The agencies adopted
similar navigable waters definitions in
the 1980s.
According to the two agencies, the
action follows the executive order signed
by President Trump on Feb. 28 that
states it is in the national interest to
ensure the nation's navigable waters are
kept free from pollution, while promoting
economic growth, minimizing regulatory
uncertainty and showing due regard for
the roles of Congress and the states. In
addition to calling on the agencies to revise the 2015 rule's WOTUS rule, EPA
notes the executive order required EPA

and the Corps to consider interpreting
the term "navigable waters" in a manner
consistent with Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia's plurality decision in
Rapanos v. United States. That 2008
ruling addressed the CWA's jurisdiction
of WOTUS as it related to navigable
waters, tributaries and adjacent wetlands,
EPA describes.
"With this proposed rule, the agencies
intend to maintain the status quo by proposing to add an applicability date to the
2015 rule and thus provide continuity
and regulatory certainty for regulated entities, the states and tribes, agency staff,
and the public while the agencies continue
to work to consider possible revisions to
the 2015 rule," the Nov. 22 Federal Register notice states.
Other Agency Action
The two agencies began the two-step
process to revise the WOTUS definition
on July 27. The initial action proposed to
rescind the 2015 WOTUS definition promulgated by EPA and the Corps and to recodify the previous definition, which
defines the CWA's scope. According to
the agencies, in the second step, a public
notice and comment rule making will lead
to a substantive re-evaluation of the definition by adding an applicability date of
two years after the date of the final rule.
The addition of an applicability date
ensures that the regulatory definition of
WOTUS in place before the 2015 rule
that has been in effect nationwide since
the courts stayed the 2015 rule will remain
in effect during actions taken in response
to Trump's executive order, EPA says.
"State, tribal and local governments
have well-defined and longstanding relationships with the federal government in
implementing CWA programs and these
relationships are not altered by this proposed rule," the agency notes. "This proposed rule would not establish any new
regulatory requirements."
r

Coming In February
Special reports highlight the positive production results from using a
new coated ceramic proppant with
improved wettability properties for
enhanced flow and fracturing fluid
cleanup of the proppant packs in
Gulf of Mexico wells.
JANUARY 2018 27

https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/electric-utility-generating-units-advance-notice-proposed https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/electric-utility-generating-units-advance-notice-proposed https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/electric-utility-generating-units-advance-notice-proposed

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2018