9-15 IAN Simpson War on EPA

  Simpson vs. the EPA. How many rounds can they go. Presumably, the EPA was invented to protect the environment and that is something that all of us in the ag community can understand and appreciate. The catch is, like so many things in politics and agencies…who’s running the asylum? Protecting the environment is a must…it’s noble…but we lose credibility when we take things too far. Here’s Congressman Mike Simpson of Idaho with whom I had a conversation recently.

 “We had several amendments to try and prevent the EPA from regulating a lot of the things that we’re afraid they’re stepping into such as the green house gas emissions. They have said their endangerment findings allow them to do that but they’re trying to force congress into passing a cap and trade bill. Manure management systems. We have prevented them from regulating those in the past and weren’t able to get that amendment adopted this year.

 The milk spill. Dairies that have containers larger than 1320 gallons, because dairy milk has oil in it, they are trying to regulate that so that they have to have an oil spill plan. It’s a little different when you are spilling millions of gallons of oil into the gulf of Mexico vs. a dairy farmer with a moderately sized dairy herd with a 1320 gallon tank so we’re trying to prevent them from regulating that.”