Supreme Court Agrees to Take EPA WOTUS Rule

Last week the Supreme Court's decided to grant the cert petition for the industry coalition lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency on its Waters of the U.S. or WOTUS. National Cattlemen's Beef Association Environmental Counsel Scott Yager provides more background on why this is positive for farmers and ranchers.

Yager: "Where we are at the lawsuit is that we are in the courts right now fighting the rule. How that is playing out currently is that we are two different levels of the court. We have the meat of the case or the merits briefing is taking place in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals which is based in the Cincinnati, Ohio. We actually fundamentally disagree with the case starting at that level. Our position is that it should start at the District Court level and that is just reading the language of the Clean Water Act which dictates where these type cases start and WOTUS starts at the District Court level. We've also asked the Supreme Court to look at that issue of which court it starts in. The big news here is last Friday the Supreme Court granted our cert petition to hear that issue. That is big news and great news for cattle producers and any landowners across the country because it shows that the Supreme Court is interested in WOTUS and they are going to hear our case this spring. They are going to determine where our case starts at, so we are going to continue fighting this battle."