Friday, December 09, 2011 2:42:26 AM
House blocks nonexistent rule on farm dust
By Mary Clare Jalonick
Associated Press / December 8, 2011
WASHINGTON—The House has passed a bill to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from cracking down on farm dust, even though the agency says it has no plans to regulate that pollution.
The idea that farm dust could be regulated has proved a popular topic on the campaign trail, riding a wave of anti-regulation sentiment. Republicans and some Democrats have told farm-state audiences that the EPA is considering a crackdown on farms, even though the agency issued a public statement in October calling that a "myth."
Environmental Protection Agency officials have said repeatedly that they won't propose new regulations to limit dust stirred up by farm equipment. But sponsors say the bill -- which passed 268-150, with the support of 33 Democrats -- will give more certainty to the agriculture industry and ward off potential lawsuits over the dust.
The House GOP has pushed a host of measures this year aimed at weakening, delaying or scrapping environmental regulations, saying they view them as job killers.
"This bill is a strong step in the right direction to reduce regulatory uncertainty," said South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem,
[ http://northernbeacon.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-fly-over-really-means.html ; http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/12/weekly-remarks-kristi-noem-obama-tax-cuts.html ] the Republican sponsor of the farm dust legislation. She added that the EPA's words "are empty promises until we back them up with real action."
Other Republican supporters of the bill appeared to completely ignore the EPA's statements that there will be no new regulations.
"Where's the EPA going to be next, checking under my bed for dust bunnies?" asked Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas. "The EPA's regulations on this are the height of overreach."
Democratic opponents said the bill is a waste of time and written so broadly that it could go beyond just preventing farm dust, exempting mine operations and other industrial activities as well.
"It's not really about farms at all," said California Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The White House said Wednesday that President Barack Obama will veto the bill if it comes to his desk. An administration policy statement said the "ambiguously written bill would create high levels of regulatory uncertainty regarding emission control requirements that have been in place for years."
The statement added that the legislation "purports to address a problem that does not exist."
The bill is not expected to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The dust flap dates back several years, to when Republican President George W. Bush's EPA proposed regulating rural and urban areas more equally when it comes to "coarse particulate matter" -- or soot -- in the air. Farms could fall under the tighter restrictions. Farm groups challenged that in court, and a federal appeals court ruled in February 2009 that the EPA had already provided the evidence necessary to determine farm dust "likely is not safe."
Obama's EPA initially defended that decision. An EPA spokeswoman said after the ruling that regardless of whether someone lives in a rural or urban area, the threshold for unsafe levels of dust in the air should remain consistent nationally. But later, Jackson said the agency was unlikely to single out farm dust.
Under current rules, states are tasked with making sure that their levels of particulate matter in the air are below certain levels. Farm groups have worried, however, that their pollution -- dust kicked up behind a combine, for example -- would be targeted separately.
"Cattlemen and women worried about being fined for moving cattle, tilling a field or even driving down a dirt road should rest assured knowing that will not be allowed to happen on our watch," National Cattlemen's Beef Association President Bill Donald said in a statement after the vote.
One major farm group called the bill a waste of time, however. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson said misinformation spreading across the country has created unnecessary concern for farm country.
"Congress should stop politicizing this issue and move on to passing meaningful legislation to help farmers, ranchers and rural communities," Johnson said.
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press (emphasis added)
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/12/08/house_blocks_nonexistent_rule_on_farm_dust/ [no comments yet] [photos of Noem my add]
===
House OKs ban on rural dust limits
Rep Kristi Noem, R-S.D., sponsored the bill to block federal pollution limits on dust from farms, mines and other rural operations.
By Harry Hamburg, AP
By Philip Brasher, Gannett Washington Bureau
December 8, 2011
WASHINGTON – The House voted Thursday to block federal pollution limits on the dust kicked up by farms, mines and other rural operations.
The bill sponsored by freshman Rep. Krisiti Noem, R-S.D., is a key part of Republican efforts to roll back federal rules and regulations, arguing that government overreach is holding back the economy.
It's unlikely the bill, Noem's signature piece of legislation, will go any further. The White House has threatened to veto the bill and it faces strong opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
"Dust in rural America is not the same as dust in urban areas," said Noem. "It's common sense that dust from a dirt road is not the same as soot from a car and it's common sense that they should be regulated differently."
After the 268-150 vote in the GOP-controlled House, Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., called for passing a similar bill in the Senate. He had earlier backed off the issue after assurances from the Environmental Protection Agency that it would not tighten its existing dust regulations. EPA's pledge "was important, but a valid argument has been made that it does not prevent future administrations" from changing the regulations, Johanns said Thursday.
Thirty-three Democrats voted for the bill, including all three from Iowa: Leonard Boswell, Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack. No Republican voted against it.
At issue is a form of pollution known as particulate matter. Federal emission limits are high enough that they do not affect farms in most parts of the country, but Republicans have argued that environmentalists could use a lawsuit to force the EPA to lower the caps in the future. The bill would exempt from the limits the dust that originates from farms, mining operations and other rural sources. The bill defines such emissions as "nuisance dust."
Democrats alternately mocked the bill, calling it a distraction from more important issues, and warned that it could posed a threat to public health because it would cover dust from mining operations, smelters and other industrial sources.
"The middle class is being clobbered and you're talking about dust," said Rep. James McDermott, D-Wash., told Republicans.
A Utah copper operation that is a subsidiary of multinational mining giant Rio Tinto was supporting the bill as were corn processors. The Housed voted down a Democratic amendment that would have stripped mining operations from the bill's protection.
"The reason industrial mining operations are pushing this bill has nothing to do with protecting family farms," said Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The White House issued a statement of administration policy that says the bill could force the EPA to roll back existing protections in areas where that kind of pollution already is a problem.
"This ambiguously written bill would create high levels of regulatory uncertainty regarding emission control requirements that have been in place for years," the statement said.
The bipartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would cost the EPA $10 million to rework its existing air pollution standards if the bill passes and to study whether changes would be necessary in its national monitoring network that tracks dust levels throughout the country.
© 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-12-08/farm-dust-house-vote/51748478/1 [with comments]
===
House Votes to Stop Farm-Dust Rule EPA Has No Plans to Issue
By Mark Drajem - Dec 8, 2011 2:03 PM CT
The U.S. House voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from tightening air-pollution controls on farm dust, a regulation the agency said it has no plans to issue.
The Republican-led House passed the legislation 268-150 today. President Barack Obama’s administration said it opposes the bill and issued a veto threat yesterday. Republicans said they don’t trust the EPA to hold off on new standards and worry a lawsuit could force the agency to act.
“Many of the environmental decisions made in America today come as outside groups file lawsuits, and EPA runs and enters into” an agreement to comply with that request, Representative Ed Whitfield, Kentucky Republican, said before the vote.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a letter to Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, that the EPA would keep intact the current standard for particulate-matter pollution for farms, construction and demolition work.
Jackson, in the Oct. 14 letter, said that she decided to maintain the 1987 standard after a review of the science, an analysis by agency scientists and recommendations from an outside advisory panel.
“This is a bad solution to an imaginary problem,” Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, said during debate. “With one week left in the legislative session, we are spending a day on a bill that addresses a problem that doesn’t exist.”
The bill is H.R. 1633
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
©2011 BLOOMBERG L.P.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-08/house-votes-to-stop-farm-dust-rule-epa-has-no-plans-to-issue-1-.html
===
Newt Promotes Dust Rule Myth To Attack EPA ‘Radicals’
By Brad Johnson on Nov 29, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Speaking at a South Carolina town hall today, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich falsely claimed Environmental Protection Agency is trying to regulate agricultural dust. Calling the EPA a collection of “left-wingers trying to use the power of the government to reshape the whole economy on their terms,” Gingrich spun a tale of EPA bureaucrats going after Iowa farmers for the dust kicked up on dirt roads:
You have these people from the EPA saying, “You don’t understand! This is particulate matter! Here it is on page whatever of the Clean Air Act!“
Watch it [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MITG6wtbXik ]:
In reality, agricultural dust pollution is no joking matter. The Bush administration issued emissions monitoring guidelines [ http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/ap42/ch13/final/c13s0202.pdf ] for dust kicked up from poorly maintained rural roads [ http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/trur.html ]. Industrial agribusiness in California puts up tens of thousands of tons [ http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/conference/ei12/fugdust/yu.pdf ] of particulate matter every year. Regulations on particulate matter [ http://www.epa.gov/pm/agriculture.html ] have been issued under the Reagan, Clinton, and Bush administrations. The “dust” Gingrich jokes about has been found to cause hospital admissions for heart disease, hospital admissions and doctors’ visits for respiratory diseases, increased respiratory symptoms in children, and premature death in people with heart or lung disease.
Despite the health threat from the tons of toxic dust produced by industrial agribusiness, there are no federal regulations protecting agricultural workers. Only two states, California and Arizona, have rules on farm dust. Although “farm dust regulation” is a popular Republican talking point, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has repeatedly affirmed that her agency has no plans to issue a farm dust rule.
© 2005-2011 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/11/29/377930/newt-promotes-dust-rule-myth-to-attack-epa-radicals/ [with comment]
===
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By Mary Clare Jalonick
Associated Press / December 8, 2011
WASHINGTON—The House has passed a bill to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from cracking down on farm dust, even though the agency says it has no plans to regulate that pollution.
The idea that farm dust could be regulated has proved a popular topic on the campaign trail, riding a wave of anti-regulation sentiment. Republicans and some Democrats have told farm-state audiences that the EPA is considering a crackdown on farms, even though the agency issued a public statement in October calling that a "myth."
Environmental Protection Agency officials have said repeatedly that they won't propose new regulations to limit dust stirred up by farm equipment. But sponsors say the bill -- which passed 268-150, with the support of 33 Democrats -- will give more certainty to the agriculture industry and ward off potential lawsuits over the dust.
The House GOP has pushed a host of measures this year aimed at weakening, delaying or scrapping environmental regulations, saying they view them as job killers.
"This bill is a strong step in the right direction to reduce regulatory uncertainty," said South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem,
[ http://northernbeacon.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-fly-over-really-means.html ; http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/12/weekly-remarks-kristi-noem-obama-tax-cuts.html ] the Republican sponsor of the farm dust legislation. She added that the EPA's words "are empty promises until we back them up with real action."
Other Republican supporters of the bill appeared to completely ignore the EPA's statements that there will be no new regulations.
"Where's the EPA going to be next, checking under my bed for dust bunnies?" asked Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas. "The EPA's regulations on this are the height of overreach."
Democratic opponents said the bill is a waste of time and written so broadly that it could go beyond just preventing farm dust, exempting mine operations and other industrial activities as well.
"It's not really about farms at all," said California Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The White House said Wednesday that President Barack Obama will veto the bill if it comes to his desk. An administration policy statement said the "ambiguously written bill would create high levels of regulatory uncertainty regarding emission control requirements that have been in place for years."
The statement added that the legislation "purports to address a problem that does not exist."
The bill is not expected to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The dust flap dates back several years, to when Republican President George W. Bush's EPA proposed regulating rural and urban areas more equally when it comes to "coarse particulate matter" -- or soot -- in the air. Farms could fall under the tighter restrictions. Farm groups challenged that in court, and a federal appeals court ruled in February 2009 that the EPA had already provided the evidence necessary to determine farm dust "likely is not safe."
Obama's EPA initially defended that decision. An EPA spokeswoman said after the ruling that regardless of whether someone lives in a rural or urban area, the threshold for unsafe levels of dust in the air should remain consistent nationally. But later, Jackson said the agency was unlikely to single out farm dust.
Under current rules, states are tasked with making sure that their levels of particulate matter in the air are below certain levels. Farm groups have worried, however, that their pollution -- dust kicked up behind a combine, for example -- would be targeted separately.
"Cattlemen and women worried about being fined for moving cattle, tilling a field or even driving down a dirt road should rest assured knowing that will not be allowed to happen on our watch," National Cattlemen's Beef Association President Bill Donald said in a statement after the vote.
One major farm group called the bill a waste of time, however. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson said misinformation spreading across the country has created unnecessary concern for farm country.
"Congress should stop politicizing this issue and move on to passing meaningful legislation to help farmers, ranchers and rural communities," Johnson said.
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press (emphasis added)
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/12/08/house_blocks_nonexistent_rule_on_farm_dust/ [no comments yet] [photos of Noem my add]
===
House OKs ban on rural dust limits
Rep Kristi Noem, R-S.D., sponsored the bill to block federal pollution limits on dust from farms, mines and other rural operations.
By Harry Hamburg, AP
By Philip Brasher, Gannett Washington Bureau
December 8, 2011
WASHINGTON – The House voted Thursday to block federal pollution limits on the dust kicked up by farms, mines and other rural operations.
The bill sponsored by freshman Rep. Krisiti Noem, R-S.D., is a key part of Republican efforts to roll back federal rules and regulations, arguing that government overreach is holding back the economy.
It's unlikely the bill, Noem's signature piece of legislation, will go any further. The White House has threatened to veto the bill and it faces strong opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
"Dust in rural America is not the same as dust in urban areas," said Noem. "It's common sense that dust from a dirt road is not the same as soot from a car and it's common sense that they should be regulated differently."
After the 268-150 vote in the GOP-controlled House, Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., called for passing a similar bill in the Senate. He had earlier backed off the issue after assurances from the Environmental Protection Agency that it would not tighten its existing dust regulations. EPA's pledge "was important, but a valid argument has been made that it does not prevent future administrations" from changing the regulations, Johanns said Thursday.
Thirty-three Democrats voted for the bill, including all three from Iowa: Leonard Boswell, Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack. No Republican voted against it.
At issue is a form of pollution known as particulate matter. Federal emission limits are high enough that they do not affect farms in most parts of the country, but Republicans have argued that environmentalists could use a lawsuit to force the EPA to lower the caps in the future. The bill would exempt from the limits the dust that originates from farms, mining operations and other rural sources. The bill defines such emissions as "nuisance dust."
Democrats alternately mocked the bill, calling it a distraction from more important issues, and warned that it could posed a threat to public health because it would cover dust from mining operations, smelters and other industrial sources.
"The middle class is being clobbered and you're talking about dust," said Rep. James McDermott, D-Wash., told Republicans.
A Utah copper operation that is a subsidiary of multinational mining giant Rio Tinto was supporting the bill as were corn processors. The Housed voted down a Democratic amendment that would have stripped mining operations from the bill's protection.
"The reason industrial mining operations are pushing this bill has nothing to do with protecting family farms," said Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The White House issued a statement of administration policy that says the bill could force the EPA to roll back existing protections in areas where that kind of pollution already is a problem.
"This ambiguously written bill would create high levels of regulatory uncertainty regarding emission control requirements that have been in place for years," the statement said.
The bipartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would cost the EPA $10 million to rework its existing air pollution standards if the bill passes and to study whether changes would be necessary in its national monitoring network that tracks dust levels throughout the country.
© 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-12-08/farm-dust-house-vote/51748478/1 [with comments]
===
House Votes to Stop Farm-Dust Rule EPA Has No Plans to Issue
By Mark Drajem - Dec 8, 2011 2:03 PM CT
The U.S. House voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from tightening air-pollution controls on farm dust, a regulation the agency said it has no plans to issue.
The Republican-led House passed the legislation 268-150 today. President Barack Obama’s administration said it opposes the bill and issued a veto threat yesterday. Republicans said they don’t trust the EPA to hold off on new standards and worry a lawsuit could force the agency to act.
“Many of the environmental decisions made in America today come as outside groups file lawsuits, and EPA runs and enters into” an agreement to comply with that request, Representative Ed Whitfield, Kentucky Republican, said before the vote.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a letter to Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, that the EPA would keep intact the current standard for particulate-matter pollution for farms, construction and demolition work.
Jackson, in the Oct. 14 letter, said that she decided to maintain the 1987 standard after a review of the science, an analysis by agency scientists and recommendations from an outside advisory panel.
“This is a bad solution to an imaginary problem,” Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, said during debate. “With one week left in the legislative session, we are spending a day on a bill that addresses a problem that doesn’t exist.”
The bill is H.R. 1633
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
©2011 BLOOMBERG L.P.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-08/house-votes-to-stop-farm-dust-rule-epa-has-no-plans-to-issue-1-.html
===
Newt Promotes Dust Rule Myth To Attack EPA ‘Radicals’
By Brad Johnson on Nov 29, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Speaking at a South Carolina town hall today, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich falsely claimed Environmental Protection Agency is trying to regulate agricultural dust. Calling the EPA a collection of “left-wingers trying to use the power of the government to reshape the whole economy on their terms,” Gingrich spun a tale of EPA bureaucrats going after Iowa farmers for the dust kicked up on dirt roads:
You have these people from the EPA saying, “You don’t understand! This is particulate matter! Here it is on page whatever of the Clean Air Act!“
Watch it [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MITG6wtbXik ]:
“I can’t make these things up,” Gingrich concluded.
In reality, agricultural dust pollution is no joking matter. The Bush administration issued emissions monitoring guidelines [ http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/ap42/ch13/final/c13s0202.pdf ] for dust kicked up from poorly maintained rural roads [ http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/trur.html ]. Industrial agribusiness in California puts up tens of thousands of tons [ http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/conference/ei12/fugdust/yu.pdf ] of particulate matter every year. Regulations on particulate matter [ http://www.epa.gov/pm/agriculture.html ] have been issued under the Reagan, Clinton, and Bush administrations. The “dust” Gingrich jokes about has been found to cause hospital admissions for heart disease, hospital admissions and doctors’ visits for respiratory diseases, increased respiratory symptoms in children, and premature death in people with heart or lung disease.
Despite the health threat from the tons of toxic dust produced by industrial agribusiness, there are no federal regulations protecting agricultural workers. Only two states, California and Arizona, have rules on farm dust. Although “farm dust regulation” is a popular Republican talking point, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has repeatedly affirmed that her agency has no plans to issue a farm dust rule.
© 2005-2011 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/11/29/377930/newt-promotes-dust-rule-myth-to-attack-epa-radicals/ [with comment]
===
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