North America: Environment

The Government of Canada has amended regulations under the Impact Assessment Act to streamline environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects, particularly interprovincial pipelines. These changes shift regulatory responsibility for certain energy projects to the Canada Energy Regulator while removing other project types from federal review following the Supreme Court's 2024 constitutional ruling.

On 9 September 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers published a supplemental proposal to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act.1 The supplemental proposal builds on the agencies’ November 2025 proposed rule and responds to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA, which significantly narrowed the scope of waters subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act and established a new framework for determining which waters fall within that jurisdiction.

The EPA and Army Corps have issued a supplemental proposal that would fundamentally reshape federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction by replacing the controversial "wet season" framework with a stricter "perennial water" standard. This alternative approach would require water features to flow continuously year-round under ordinary conditions, with limited exceptions for brief dry periods, potentially excluding vast areas—particularly in the arid West—from federal wetlands regulation.