National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) CEO Jim Matheson said electric co-ops welcome the Trump administration’s willingness to take another look at the controversial Waters of the U.S. rule (WOTUS).
He said, “The Waters of the U.S. rule would increase costs for electric co-ops to build and maintain critical infrastructure without meaningful environmental benefits. We thank the administration for hearing our concerns and pulling back this rule. WOTUS needs to be defined in a sensible way that provides clarity without saddling American businesses with huge regulatory burdens and costs.
“Electric cooperatives maintain more than 2.5 million miles of our nation’s distribution lines covering 75 percent of the nation’s landscape. Replacing WOTUS with something more workable will help co-ops carry out important maintenance activities and build new infrastructure.”
