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Subcommittee looks at impact of environmental regulations

Witnesses at a House Agriculture subcommittee hearing on environmental regulations Tuesday were highly critical of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Richard Ebert, a dairy farmer and president of Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, says farmers are frustrated by EPA’s strategy in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

“In farming, one size doesn’t fit all,” Ebert said. “EPA’s Chesapeake Bay model is inflexible and based upon assumptions that are just plain wrong.”

Patrick O’Toole, a Wyoming rancher and president of the Family Farm Alliance, says the Obama Administration has given too much authority to the EPA.

“When this administration decided that the EPA would replace the Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior, it’s a whole new world,” said O’Toole.

O’Toole says conservation programs that are run by local entities are the most effective.

The hearing was called by the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry.

Link to full hearing on YouTube (starts around the 9:45 mark)