11/27/06 EPA Admin talks policy

EPA Administrator talks policy. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency  Stephen Johnson  says he was personally involved in the development of the new energy policy which the administration established last year. As for energy regulation - the Administrator said. JOHNSON: EPA is responsible for writing the regulations to make sure that we as a nation meet what Congress has told us to meet in terms of the amount of renewable fuel and so we're moving from about to a little less than 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel last year to by the year 2012 that's almost going to double to 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel. So that means a lot more corn, a lot more soybeans and a lot more cellulostic biomass, which is great. Johnson says he has spent a lot of time talking to the agriculture community across the nation. He says, and this is a quote: "that is a good thing". He also says he has been able to work through some tough issues. Mr. Johnson recognizes that air quality is one of those issues. JOHNSON: The good new is that the air quality in the United States is the best that it's been in decades. We have the most health protective standard in the history of the United States and yet we're looking at it where the science is clear, we've made clear decisions. One of those areas that it was not so clear is in the area of PM10 also known as course particle. And so I made a decision to keep the standard that's been on the books for the last 20 years in place. The Administrator says this means no new requirements for the agriculture community. JOHNSON: And in fact what we've asked our states to do that are interested in pursuing more information on this course particle standard to really focus their attention on the urban environment and industrial environment because that's where we believe the problems are, not coming from agricultural mining. Stephen Johnson who is the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.