Developers, not farmers, get biggest win from wetlands rule

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump often points to farmers as among the biggest winners from the administration's proposed rollback of federal protections for wetlands and waterways across the country.

But under longstanding federal law and rules, farmers and farmland already are exempt from most of the regulatory hurdles on behalf of wetlands that the Trump administration is targeting. Because of that, environmental groups long have argued that builders, oil and gas drillers and other industry owners would be the big winners if the government adopts the pending rollback, making it easier to fill in bogs, creeks and streams for plowing, drilling, mining or building.

Government numbers released last month support that argument.