High Court Strikes Down EPA's Efforts to Expand Its Authority; ARTBA and NSSGA Partnered During Legal Battle

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) campaign to regulate all U.S. ditches hit another roadblock May 25. The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed with the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) and the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) that the agency exceeded its authority in developing new wetlands regulations.

On behalf of the 450 members of the National Stone, Sand, & Gravel Association I am writing to thank the Environment and Public Works Committee for holding today’s hearing on Federal Actions to Improve Project Reviews for a Cleaner and Stronger Economy.   NSSGA members consist of stone, sand and gravel producers; industrial sand suppliers; and the equipment manufacturers and service providers who support them.

On behalf of the 450 members of the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA), we write to urge you to vote to reverse the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) designation of the Northern Long-Eared Bat (NLEB) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), on S.J. Res 24 and H.J. Res. 49.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is working to implement a speed limiter mandate that would restrict all heavy-duty commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) to a single top speed across the country, as low as 60 miles per hour. This mandate will be bad for road safety, crash rates, driver retention, and supply chain performance. As the Subcommittee on Highways & Transit convenes a hearing this week to examine policies that will help overcome supply chain challenges, we urge you to prevent FMCSA from moving forward with this controversial mandate.

On behalf of the 450 members of the National Sand, Stone & Gravel Association (NSSGA), we write to share our deepest support for both the Revitalizing the Economy by Simplifying Timelines and Assuring Regulatory Transparency Act (RESTART Act) and the Spur Permitting of Underdeveloped Resources (SPUR) Act. These two pieces of critical legislation are key in helping our country’s aggregate producers address unnecessary permitting hurdles, ending the confusion of WOTUS and providing regulatory certainty to many critical issue areas.

Alexandria, VA – Today, National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) Vice President, Government & Regulatory Affairs Michele Stanley issued the following statement, urging legislators to address permitting. 

On behalf of the 400 members of the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, we appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback and response to the EPA’s RFI to support new IRA programs to lower embodied greenhouse gas emissions with construction materials and products. NSSGA is the leading voice and advocate for the aggregates industry and the businesses that supply them, with member companies representing more than 90 percent of the crushed stone and 70 percent of the sand and gravel consumed annually in the United States.

The undersigned associations (collectively, the “Coalition”) offer the following comments in response to the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ’s) Interim National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Guidance on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change (“Interim Guidance”). Our organizations represent a diverse set of economic sectors that form the backbone of the American economy—agriculture, energy, construction, mining, forestry, manufacturing, transportation, and other sectors.

The 33 national associations and construction trade unions of the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) applaud Congress for including improvements to the federal infrastructure permitting process as part of H.R. 1, the “Lower Energy Costs” Act.  TCC members are on the front line of rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. To accomplish this, significant changes need to be made to the current project review and approval process. H.R. 1 accomplishes this goal.

We represent construction materials vital to our nation’s infrastructure and are providing comments regarding the proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Particulate Matter (PM).  Our organizations represent hundreds of thousands of employees across the country and include the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA), National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA), and the Portland Cement Association (PCA) (associations).