American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2020 - 14

IndustryDigest
Congress OKs Additional
COVID-19 Relief Package
WASHINGTON-Lawmakers in
April added billions of dollars in
COVID-19 pandemic relief when
Congress passed and President Donald
Trump signed HR 266, the Paycheck
Protection Program and Health Care
Enhancement Act.
The COVID-19 supplemental relief
package passed the Senate on April 21,
the House on April 23, and was signed
by the president on April 24.
It enhances March's $2.2 trillion
Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic
Security (CARES) Act by providing an
additional $310 billion for the CARES
Act's Payroll Protection Program (PPP),
providing $75 billion for hospitals, $25
billion for COVID-19 testing and $60
billion to fortify the Small Business
Administration's Disaster Loans
Program Account and Emergency
Economic Injury Disaster Loan
Program, according to text posted on
the Congress.gov website.
Of the $310 billion allocated for PPP,
the bill text indicates $30 billion is set
aside for lenders with less than $50
billion in assets and another $30 billion
is reserved for lenders with less than
$10 billion in assets.
This was done to address complaints
that many smaller businesses were
crowded out of the $350 billion
allocated to PPP in the CARES Act in
favor of larger businesses, according to
the Wall Street Journal, which reports,
"Democrats successfully pushed for the
$60 billion in earmarked funds for
small, midsize and community lenders
amid concerns that certain groups,
including women, minorities and people
in rural areas might have particular
difficulty accessing PPP loans."
The WSJ notes that the $350 billion
allocated to PPP in the CARES Act ran
out in less than two weeks.
The HR 266 text says the $25 billion
allocated for COVID-19 testing must go
toward "necessary expenses to research,
develop, validate, manufacture,
purchase, administer and expand
capacity for COVID-19 tests."
Of the $25 billion total, $11 billion is
directed to states, localities, territories
and tribal entities, which a CNN report
says "had been a big sticking point in
negotiations as President Trump had
pushed for states to be responsible for
14 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

expanding testing capacity while
Democrats had pushed for the federal
government to take a larger role."
Democratic negotiators also had
pushed for additional funding for state
and local governments, but signed off
on the HR 266 provisions when
President Trump promised that would
be addressed in the next coronavirus
relief package, CNN adds.
❒

EPA And Army Corps
Publish New Definition
Of 'Waters Of The U.S.'
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army published the final Navigable Waters Protection Rule to
define "waters of the United States" regulated under the Clean Water Act in the
April 21 Federal Register.
The rule itself was announced Jan.
23 by EPA Administrator Andrew
Wheeler in Las Vegas (AOGR, February
2020, pg. 14). The final rule, which replaces the Obama administration's 2015
Clean Water Rule, will become effective
June 22, although a number of organizations quickly filed legal challenges.
According to EPA, four clear categories of waters are federally regulated
under the Navigable Waters Protection
Rule:
· The territorial seas and traditional
navigable waters;
· Perennial and intermittent tributaries to those waters;
· Certain lakes, ponds and impoundments; and
· Wetlands adjacent to jurisdictional waters.
The final rule also details 12 categories of exclusions or features that are
not waters of the United States, EPA
continues. Those include features that
contain water in direct response to rainfall (e.g., ephemeral features), groundwater, many ditches, prior converted
cropland and waste treatment systems.
In addition, EPA says, the rule clarifies key elements related to the scope of
CWA jurisdiction:
· It provides clarity and consistency
by removing the proposed separate categories for jurisdictional ditches and impoundments.
· It refines the proposed definition
of "typical year," which provides important regional and temporal flexibility,

and ensures jurisdiction is being determined accurately in times that are not
too wet nor too dry.
· It defines "adjacent wetlands" as
wetlands that are meaningfully connected to other jurisdictional waters, for example, by directly abutting or having
regular surface water communication
with jurisdictional waters.
The Independent Petroleum Association of America points out that the final
rule fulfills Executive Order 13788,
"Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism
and Economic Growth by Reviewing
the 'Waters of the United States,'" issued by President Donald Trump in
February 2017. It also "reflects legal
precedent set by key U.S. Supreme
Court cases as well as robust public outreach and engagement, including preproposal input and comments received
on the proposed rule," IPAA says.
Nevertheless, according to published
reports, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation
and ShoreRivers led a parade of challengers when they filed a lawsuit against
the rule April 27 in federal district court
in Maryland. They were followed, reports say, by a coalition of environmental groups led by the Southern Environmental Law Center that filed a challenge in federal district court April 29 in
South Carolina, and another led by the
Natural Resources Defense Council and
the Conservation Law Foundation that
filed April 29 in Massachusetts.
Then on May 1, 17 state attorneys
general led by Democrats Xavier Becerra of California, Letitia James of New
York and Hector Balderas of New Mexico sued in the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of California.
Meanwhile, other reports indicate
the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association, supported by the conservative
Pacific Legal Foundation, challenged
the rule April 27 in a New Mexico federal district court, contending it
"doesn't go far enough in paring back
the CWA's reach."
❒

Southwest Colorado RMP
Adds Leasable Acreage
MONTROSE, CO.-The U.S. Bureau
of Land Management's field office in
Uncompahgre, Co., has released the
final version of its updated resource
management plan, which has been
subject to almost a decade of public
comment and, media reports indicate,
http://www.Congress.gov
American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2020

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