EPA Administrator Address WOTUS, RFS 

Gina McCarthy
Gina McCarthy

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the National Farmers Union at its convention on Monday that she is renaming the Waters of the U.S. rule the Clean Water Rule. She told attendees she wishes EPA would have done a better job of rolling out its Clean Water Rule – from calling it WOTUS instead of the Clean Water Rule – to not being more clear about what EPA was and was not proposing – to not talking to farmers and others before EPA put out the interpretive rule. McCarthy says the Clean Water Rule boils down to three simple facts. First – one in three Americans get their drinking water from streams and wetlands that lack clear protection from pollution today. Second – the U.S. economy canwed, concern about erosional features will be fixed, and the only ditches EPA is interested in are ones that are natural or constructed streams that have to have the amount, duration and frequency of flow to look, act and function like a tributary. She says the exclusions and exemptions for agriculture in the Clean Water Act absolutely won’t change.’t function without clean water. Third – the species Americans depend on and the places they love for recreation can’t survive without it. As EPA prepares to send the rule to the Office of Management and Budget – McCarthy says the definition of tributaries will be narro

As for the Renewable Fuel Standard – McCarthy says EPA know it has to move ahead and finalize volumes for 2014, 2015 and 2016. She says biofuels are an important part of President Obama’s energy strategy – helping curb U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cut carbon pollution and drive innovation. She says her agency is committed to catching up and getting the RFS back on track. EPA wants to issue an RFS standard that can last over a number of years and provide certainty to the renewable fuels industry – according to McCarthy.

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