We’ve had a few of you reach out to discuss the recent ruling by SCOTUS on the West Virginia V EPA case where the court ruled the EPA over-stepped their authority to regulate the Clean Air Act.
Does this help mining? Our take is yes, it is likely. Over the years (many, many years) congress ceded (gave up) their oversight of the EPA and let them make their own rules and regulations. Because of this ceding their authority, some of the power the EPA was flexing was ruled unconstitutional.
Many of these agencies, whether it be the IRS, EPA or USFS have taken control of regulation away from congress with barely any oversight.
The CWA, Clean Water Act is one of those we are looking at how this ruling applies to. The CWA is basically what tyrannical states like OR and CA use to hammer suction dredgers and small-scale miners who mine creeks and rivers.
We’ll keep you posted on our findings, but here’s a decent read which somewhat explains the case: