News

The dust bill–big deal or waste of time?

The chances of the so-called “dust bill” ever becoming law would seem to be pretty slim. 

The House passed the legislation last week, but it faces a tough road in the Senate and the White House has already indicated that it would veto any such bill if it were to reach the President’s desk.

National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson has called the bill “meaningless” and “unnecessary”, saying it’s a waste of taxpayer time and money.

But Kristina Butts, executive director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association disagrees.

“It sends a strong message to EPA,” Butts says. “It shows that Congress is watching and engaged in oversight of all agencies—including the Environmental Protection Agency.”

By advancing the dust bill, Butts says, the House sent a clear signal to the EPA that placing burdensome and scientifically unfounded regulations on U.S. farmers and ranchers is unacceptable.

AUDIO: Kristina Butts (2:11 MP3)

NCBA deputy environmental counsel Ashley Lyon says the legislation recognizes that dust from agricultural activities has never been shown to have an adverse health impact at ambient levels.

“First of all, it gives state and localities the actual first opportunity to regulate their dust in the way that they see fit,” Lyon says, “and it does that by exempting nuisance dust was we’ve called it—or farm dust—from the Clean Air Act if states or localities have any dust measures in place.”

And, Lyon says, in places where this is no state or local control, the bill also would exempt farm dust from the Clean Air Act unless the EPA administrator can prove it is a significant health problem—and that applying the standard is worth the costs.

“So only in the instance where states do not have regulations in place—and that the administrator makes those two findings—can the federal Clean Air Act standards be applied to nuisance dust.”

The Senate version of the dust bill was introduced by Senators Grassley of Iowa and Johanns of Nebraska and has support from 26 bipartisan senators.

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published.


 

Stay Up to Date

Subscribe for our newsletter today and receive relevant news straight to your inbox!