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Walcher: The EPA’s end run around the Supreme Court
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Approved, Commentary, Greg Walcher

Walcher: The EPA’s end run around the Supreme Court

By GREG WALCHER | GregWalcher.com An “end run” was once a common football term, describing an offensive play in which the ball carrier runs around the end of the defensive line. But today it is more often used rhetorically to describe a strategic dodge, any maneuver to bypass, circumvent, or sidestep. It’s more common in politics than in football. Many Westerners celebrated earlier this year when the Supreme Court finally declared once and for all that “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) does not include every creek, pond, ditch, puddle, and parking lot drain in the country. EPA spent nearly a decade trying to use WOTUS as the regulatory tool for a vast expansion of federal jurisdiction, to include virtually all activity that touches any water, ignoring the plain language...
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Walcher: The importance of Jim Evans in the battle for PILT
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Approved, Commentary, Greg Walcher

Walcher: The importance of Jim Evans in the battle for PILT

By Greg Walcher | Guest Columnist I did a double-take when I saw the headline: “Meeker County to call on Congress to pay up for  federal lands.” I thought it must be a typo, because Meeker is a town and not a county (it’s in Rio  Blanco County). The subtitle repeated it: “Analysis of public lands in Meeker County found that  federal revenues fall short of what property taxes would generate.”   I wondered what reporter made such an error, but then noticed it was from the West Central  Minnesota Tribune, an area where there is in fact a “Meeker County,” an entirely different place  named for an entirely different historical figure. But the headline certainly makes clear that the  two communities have something in common. South Central Minnesot...
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Walcher: Is the goal cleaner air, or something else?
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Approved, Commentary, Greg Walcher

Walcher: Is the goal cleaner air, or something else?

By GREG WALCHER | GregWalcher.com In 1991, Oleta Adams sang “Get Here” on “Soul Train.” She spent 23 weeks on the Billboard top 100 with the love ballad, listing all the ways he could get to her: by railway, trailway, airplane, caravan, sailboat, swinging on a rope, by sled, horseback, or even by windsurfing, magic carpet, or hot air balloon. The conclusion is, “I don’t care how you get here, just get here…” Government regulators like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ought to take that approach, but rarely do. This was the primary controversy surrounding EPA’s regulation of methane emissions, which sought not only to set and enforce standards for the pollutant, but also to dictate a one-size-fits-all outdated technology to monitor emissions. Governments are often behind ...
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Walcher: Crying Crocodile Tears Over ‘Sue-and-Settle’
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Approved, Commentary, Greg Walcher, National

Walcher: Crying Crocodile Tears Over ‘Sue-and-Settle’

By  GREG WALCHER House Republicans were so upset that they held two committee hearings during 2023, and in November the Committee on Oversight and Accountability announced that it will investigate EPA’s “use of secretive ‘sue-and-settle’ practices.” The Chairman says EPA uses the tactic “to avoid congressional oversight” and implement policies that special interests want. Letting outside groups sue the government to compel enforcement actions dates from the Nixon years, and during the Reagan era became a favorite tactic of the environmental industry. During the Clinton Administration several agencies discovered they could make secret back-room deals, using outside groups to file “friendly lawsuits” demanding they do what they wanted to do anyway, thereby short-circuiting all ...
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