Do you really want to make Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsak angry? Ask him about the EPA’s attempt to regulate farm dust.
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“Simply not true!” wrote an angry Vilsak today on the USDA blog, “EPA is not now, nor has it ever proposed regulating dust.”
Vilsak denounced the House of Representatives for perpetuating what he called a “false and misleading myth” by passing a bill to block the EPA’s ability to regulate dust particles.
The bill passed the House with a vote of 268-150, including the support of 33 Democrats. Republicans argued that it was important to protect farmers from the EPA, who have eyed dust regulations in the past.
Democrats insist that dust regulations are a ‘non-issue’ and the bill is unlikely to make it past the Senate, but why did President Obama issue a veto threat?
Key members of the farming and ranching community, endorsed the effort by the House of Representatives.
So what prompted this action? Fears surrounding the EPA’s proposed regulations on dust go back into the Bush administration.
According to the Associated Press, the EPA proposed regulating dust in rural and urban areas, but farm groups challenged it in court. A federal appeals court ruled in February 2009 that the EPA correctly determined that farm dust was not safe.
Obama’s EPA initially defended that decision, suggesting that regulations surrounding unsafe levels of dust in the air should remain consistent nationally.
