EPA head suggests rollback of Obama-era rules may begin next week

WASHINGTON – The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency suggested to a gathering of conservative Republicans on Saturday that the agency could begin as early as next week the process of rolling back some of the federal regulations put in place by the Obama administration.

"The future ain’t what it used to be" at the EPA, Scott Pruitt said during an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.

Pruitt, who started at the agency Tuesday, did not specifically indicate what rules President Trump's administration will target immediately. But he cited a controversial clean water rule as an example of a regulation that went too far.

The regulation – known as the Waters of the United States Rule and adopted by the Obama administration – expands the definition of waters subject to the jurisdiction of the EPA under the Clean Water Act.

Critics charge the rule so broadly expands the federal government’s authority that it would be able to regulate ditches and small bodies of water. The EPA finalized the rule in May 2015 but it has been blocked by a federal appeals court pending further legal challenges.

Congress voted last year to overturn the rule by invoking a rarely used law known as the Congressional Review Act. But President Obama vetoed that resolution.

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In his CPAC address, Pruitt, who as Oklahoma attorney general sued the EPA 14 times, said people who want to eliminate the agency are "justified" for such attitudes because of the regulatory overreach by the Obama administration.

"People across this country look at the EPA like they look at the IRS," he said. "I hope to be able to change that."

Under his leadership, Pruitt said, the EPA would pay close attention to the rule-making process to ensure any new rules do not go beyond what is allowed under federal law.

“Executive agencies only have the power that Congress has given them,” he said. “They can’t make it up as they go. They can’t fill in the blank.”

One of his top priorities, he said, will be providing businesses with “regulatory certainty.”

“We’re going to provide certainty by living within the framework that Congress has passed,” he said. Obama-era regulations that don’t fit within that framework will be rolled back, Pruitt added.

Pruitt also promised to work with the states as “partners, not adversaries” on issues such as clean air and water.