The Environmental Protection Agency gutted parts of the Clean Water Act Monday when it finalized a rule restricting the ability of states and tribes to block federal energy projects, such as pipelines or industrial plants, that could pollute rivers and drinking water. Lisa Feldt of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said, “This rule is an egregious assault on states’ longstanding authority to safeguard the quality of their own waters. Despite the Trump administration’s professed respect for 'cooperative federalism,' it is clearly willing to steamroll states’ rights and greenlight major construction projects with no regard for how they might damage state waters.”