News
Farm Bureau says Biden policy bad for farmers & administration goals
An American Farm Bureau leader says the Biden administration’s direction on environmental policy going backward and is bad for farmers and ranchers.
Shelby Hagenauer is a Senior Director of Congressional Relations. She says, “We were very supportive of more common-sense reforms that had been done and were finalized in July 2020.”
Hagenauer says many of the regulations still in place are from 1978, and the Biden proposal reverts to the old guidelines instead of updating the National Environmental Policy Act.
Hagenauer tells Brownfield President Biden has made improving infrastructure a priority but, “Going back to the old ways of doing NEPA does not move us forward in terms of getting roads fixed and waterways updated, railways focused on, and rural broadband.”
She says the July 2020 rules finalized under former President Trump would have protected the environment while helping reach infrastructure goals.
Hagenauer says the Biden announcement this week is only the beginning. “They said that this final regulation that was released this week is just phase 1 so we will be carefully watching what the proposal is for phase 2 of NEPA reviews, which we expect sometime this summer, potentially.”
Hagenauer says Farm Bureau will continue working with other agriculture groups and business interests to push for a more positive National Environmental Policy Act.
The Center for Biological Diversity was quoted regarding the Trump rollback of NEPA as saying:”The Trump Administration is turning back the clock to when rivers caught fire, our air was unbreathable, and our most boved wildlife was spiring toward extinction” Brett Hartl. The Trump administration hated the environment, there’s no way to sugar coat it. It’s sad that an Ag News organization is anti environment.