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Farm groups applaud EPA’s livestock emissions exemption

Agriculture groups are applauding the EPA’s final rule exempting farmers from reporting routine livestock emissions to state and local emergency response authorities.

Scott Bennett from American Farm Bureau tells Brownfield that anytime government gets out of the way of producers, it’s a positive thing. “Oh, this is great news for farmers and ranchers across the United States. This is one less burden that they will have to deal with.”

Michael Formica with the National Pork Producers Council tells Brownfield EPA’s action follows the direction recently laid out by Congress. “We had 15 Democrats signed on as cosponsors of the bill, corrected the problem with the Superfund statute, and then because of that, it triggered a correction on the second statute which was the Community Right To Know Act.”

Formica says the battle started when anti-agriculture activists exploited a loophole in the Superfund law* nearly twenty years ago, and the new rule removes an unnecessary burden. “It will relieve not just farmers of this stupid obligation, but also has relieved all fo the state and local emergency response authorities who did not want this information.”

The courts blocked implantation of the rule requiring producers to report livestock emissions.  The new EPA rule means producers will never have to fill out those reports.