Ground Truthing California

The plight of Kevin Pierce’s Minnesota peat-mining business illustrates how shifting regulatory targets can harm property owners and entrepreneurs. After a successful trip to the Supreme Court to prove that Clean Water Act regulations adopted in 1986 did not apply to his company’s property, Pierce now faces fresh regulatory hurdles while trying to secure permits for a new mining project on another parcel of land. The government recently adopted two sets of regulations, in 2015 and 2018, with more rules on the way. The Obama administration’s 2015 regulations apply in Minnesota where Pierce’s project is located. But the Trump administration’s 2018 regulations purport to temporarily replace the 2015 regulations with the 1986 regulations, until yet another set of regulations can be adopted sometime this year or next.