Politico had a fun little item yesterday following up on President Obama’s suggestion to an Illinois farmer to call the Department of Agriculutre about possible new dust regulations.
“Here’s what I’d suggest is, the — if you hear something is happening, but it hasn’t happened, don’t always believe what you hear,” Obama told the farmer. “If you ever have a question as to whether we’re putting something in place that’s going to make it harder for you to farm, contact USDA. Talk to them directly. Find out what it is that you’re concerned about. My suspicion is a lot of times they’re going to be able to answer your questions and it will turn out that some of your fears are unfounded.”
But when Politio called the USDA, this is what they found: “When this POLITICO reporter decided to take the president’s advice and call the USDA for an answer to the Atkinson town hall attendee’s question, I found myself in a bureaucratic equivalent of hot potato — getting bounced from the feds to Illinois state agriculture officials to the state farm bureau. … So, still no answer to the farmer’s question.”
So is the farmer’s fears unfounded? Nope. There is a very real threat that farmers could face new dust regulations. The problem is Obama told the farmer to call the wrong federal agency.
The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to issue national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) setting certain levels of acceptable air pollution every five years. The last regulaitons were finalizedin July 2007 and the process to approve the new regulaitons is supposed to begin this year. Farm dust qualifies as a “particulate matter” pollutant under the Clean Air Act. It is entirely possible that the EPA’s new air standards will involve stricter controls on farm dust.
In April of this year EPA administrator Lisa Jackson told reporters that the EPA was reviewing the matter, but that no decision had been made: “It’s my decision to make a final recommendation. That’ll happen in July.” It is now August. What happened to the new regulation?
Emailed for comment, the EPA explained: “While EPA is mandated by the CAA to review air quality standards for pollutants like farm dust every five years, and that review is currently ongoing, we have no plans to put stricter standards in place. That review continues and, at Administrator’s direction, has involved extensive outreach to farmers and ranchers.”
In other words, the EPA still has not made a decision on the issue. That Illinois farmer who does not want to deal with a heavier regulation burden, therefore, has every reason to let Obama know how he would feal about tighter EPA air quality standards.
