The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently proposed a withdrawal from a decision made in 2020 to allow Oklahoma the ability to operate state EPA regulatory programs in certain areas after a Supreme Court case determined that land in the eastern part of the state was still under tribal ownership.
The EPA wishes to reconsider the decision and submit a revised version at a later date, an EPA press release said. This comes after a June 2021 consultation with all 38 Oklahoma Tribes discussing how the decision was implemented and finalized.
“Our sovereign Tribal partners continue to have significant concerns with EPA’s previous decision and the consultation process used in reaching that decision,” Assistant Administrator for International and Tribal Affairs Jane Nishida said in the release.
The 2020 decision allowed Oklahoma the authority to conduct EPA-approved environmental regulatory programs in areas outside of tribal land under the authority given by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equality Act of 2005, the decision document, made available on EPA’s website, said. However, the legal definition of what constitutes tribal land in Oklahoma has changed since McGirt v. Oklahoma, resulting in a situation the EPA feels is best resolved through repeal and review.
“I thank the Oklahoma Tribes for engaging with EPA on this issue over the past year,” Region 6 Deputy Regional Administrator David Gray said in an EPA press release. “This consultation provided true meaning to the government-to-government relationship that the EPA has with our Tribal partners.”
The EPA is considering comments on the proposed withdrawal and reconsideration through the end of January 2022, the release said. The proposal is a result of President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.
