Ranchers are facing many challenges right now from drought and weather to a complex cattle market, as well as the back and forth of the Waters of the U.S. rule.
Mary Thomas Hart, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association‘s Environmental Legal Counsel, spoke with Tammi Arender about the issues and others that they are working on.
She touts the last decision from the Supreme Court’s 2021 term in West Virginia vs. EPA.
“The Supreme Court held that the clean power plan, finalized in 2015, was illegal under the Clean Air Act; that the Clean Air Act does not provide statutory power to the EPA to expand the Act to make those significant changes. That’s going to have an impact on a lot of our existing litigation, especially when it comes to how far an Administration can go to push policy priorities that are maybe outside of statutory authority,” said Thomas Hart.
The Association is also heavily involved in cases that affect wetlands and pig producers.
“It’s the Supreme Court’s fourth time considering the definition of WOTUS. NCBA also submitted an amicus brief in the Prop-12 case, which the Supreme Court will also consider in October to determine if California has the right to regulate gestation crate sizes in Iowa,” said Thomas Hart.
From the legal side of things, she says there is a lot of misinformation out there.
“Especially in the environmental space. I think in the United States, we’ve done such a great job of mastering the art of sustainable livestock production, but we definitely get attacked with international data related to livestock production,” Thomas Hart said.
The oral arguments in the Sackett case are expected to be heard on October 3rd.
Related:
SCOTUS has formally set dates for WOTUS and Prop-12
How will the old WOTUS rule complicate agriculture?
Win for Rural Electric Co-ops: SCOTUS limits EPA’s role in controlling emissions
