Washington,
DC (April 21, 2015) – Small business owners across the country will likely
spend Earth Day worrying that incidental water on their property will soon
cause them to be swamped in permitting fees, remediation costs and lawsuits all
unleashed by the Environmental
Protection Agency, said the National
Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) today.
“We’ll observe Earth Day when the EPA observes the
law,” said NFIB senior manager of
regulatory policy Dan Bosch. “The
President could do something meaningful tomorrow by sending the Waters Rule
back to the EPA to be analyzed for its impact on small businesses.”
The EPA recently submitted to the White House its
final rule expanding the Clean Water Act, adopted by Congress three decades ago
to protect navigable waterways like rivers and bays. Under the rule, the agency could have
jurisdiction over virtually any water no matter how local, including backyard
streams, farmers’ ponds and even creek beds and depressions that are only wet
for a few days a year. Regulatory
agencies are supposed to assess how new rules will affect small
businesses. In this case, however, the
EPA bypassed that step, arguing that the new rule is merely a definitional
change and does not, therefore, require a small business impact study.
“That’s a pretty self-serving interpretation,”
said Bosch. “The President, who may
support the new rule, should nevertheless respect the process and require the
EPA to perform the analysis.”
The new rule has been submitted to the White House
Office of Management and Budget for final approval. Unless it’s changed small businesses
everywhere face expensive permitting fees, environmental consulting fees and
potentially devastating penalties for improving property without federal
approval.
“All 50 states already have significant authority
to keep their small waterways clean. There’s simply no reason to create a duplicative
and expensive federal process. Every dollar a small business spends on
compliance is one less that they can use to compensate their employees or even
green their business in real ways,” said Bosch.
Last year, the Small Business Administration’s Office
of Advocacy called on the EPA to withdraw the rule saying that the agency had
failed to perform small business analysis required by the law. The EPA chose to
go forward with the rule anyway, claiming there would be no new costs and that
the rule only modified a definition.
“Many small businesses across the country are
doing their best to conserve energy and keep their communities clean.
Bureaucrats in Washington don’t see these efforts as they demand new paperwork
and issue new fines,” said Bosch. “Red tape is no way to make our nation
greener.”
For more information about NFIB please visit www.nfib.com.
