Obama's comments on environmental regs challenged

Farm and Ranch August 22, 2011 Some agricultural groups were quick to respond to President Obama’s comments on environmental regulation made during his Midwest bus tour last week. The President told farmers in Illinois that all the talk about regulations for noise and dust is just that, talk.

Paul Schlagle with the American Farm Bureau Federation acknowledges that no dust rule has yet been proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency but he says they are not sure it won’t happen.

Schlagle: “The House of Representatives has passed a bill to prevent that from occurring. Unfortunately it is bogged down in the Senate. These things are real, they are not made up.”

As to the President’s claim that “if the cost of a rule is more than the benefit, we are just not going to do it‘ Schlagle says;

Schlagle: “Going back to the Clean Air Act, because that is a health based statute they are not allowed to take into account cost on that. And even though there is somewhat different language in the Clean Water Act, in point of fact it is very hard to get costs to do that.”

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association sent out a news release headlined “Obama’s Midwest Tour Misinforms Farmers and Ranchers. In the release NCBA president Steve Foglesong states the fact is this administration is intent on stifling free enterprise by allowing agencies to propose regulation after regulation without any analysis on the impact on jobs in this country. He added that the president is out of touch with rural America.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch report on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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