Energy & Environment

Energy & Environment

The Big Story 

The Supreme Court on Thursday narrowed which bodies of water are subject to protections under the Clean Water Act.

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The decision, supported by five of the nation’s conservative justices, said for wetlands to get protections they need to have a “continuous surface connection” with a protected body of water. 

It overturned a lower court ruling that used a different standard, saying that wetlands with a “significant nexus” to protected waters should get protections. 

The opinion also waded into the broader debate about which waters should get protections in the first place, applying them only to those that are “relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the only conservative who did not sign onto this opinion.

 
“By narrowing the Act’s coverage of wetlands to only adjoining wetlands, the Court’s new test will leave some long-regulated adjacent wetlands no longer covered by the Clean Water Act, with significant repercussions for water quality and flood control throughout the United States,” he wrote. 

The court’s three liberal justices also disagreed with the majority’s interpretation in a separate opinion. 

Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.

Welcome to The Hill’s Energy & Environment newsletter, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains.

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