Trump Revokes Obama's Chesapeake Bay Restoration Order and Directs the EPA to Push States to Repeal Stormwater Fees — a Pennsylvania Republican at the Signing Says Families Have Been Billed "for the Rain That Falls on Their Own Roofs and Driveways"
On September 16, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order revoking Executive Order 13508, the 2009 Obama order that created the federal framework for Chesapeake Bay restoration, and directing the EPA to press the six watershed states and the District of Columbia to repeal local stormwater fees — the charges opponents call the "rain tax." The order, titled "Providing Meaningful Water Quality Improvements Through Collaboration and Oversight of Federal Support," reframes Bay cleanup around state collaboration rather than the federal pollution-reduction targets that have structured the effort for seventeen years. Two Pennsylvania Republicans from Luzerne County, where the stormwater fee has been a long-running local grievance, attended or welcomed the signing. As of the day after, no federal official from Maryland or Virginia — the two states most invested in the Bay program — had gone on the record about the order; the sharpest published criticism came from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation rather than an elected official. Stances below are relative to the executive order: "support" backs revoking the 2009 framework and targeting stormwater fees.
“The imposition of the so-called Rain Tax has created considerable controversy and opposition.”