In a victory for the natural gas and oil industry, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed key parts of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court decision, essentially stripping oversight for more than half of the nation’s waterways.

In the final rulemaking, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revised the definition of the CWA’s “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS, to align with the high court’s decision, which was issued earlier this year. 

The opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said EPA’s interpretation of the rule lacked merit in the case Sackett et al. v. EPA et al., No. 21.454. Alito was joined in the ruling by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch and Clarence...