The Biden administration is seeking to tackle the issue of Clean Water Act regulations by "learning from the lessons of the past," EPA administrator Michael Regan told members of the House Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee.
Specifically on the issue of the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule from the Obama administration and the Trump administration rule, Regan said, "We don't have any intention of going back to the original Obama Waters of the U.S. verbatim, and we don't necessarily agree with everything that was in the Trump administration's version as well. We've learned lessons from both. We've seen complexities in both, and we've determined that both rules did not necessarily listen to the will of the people."
He said that he and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack are "attached at the hip" on the issue and Regan said he has had discussions with agriculture company officials about WOTUS since he has been at EPA.
"I'm interested in moving forward, not in a ping-pong way, but a way that we can provide some certainty to the ag industry, where we don't overburden the small farmer but we also balance the protection of our wetlands and our sounds and estuaries," Regan said.