Letters: Regulating dust on farms is no laughing matter

Posted: Monday, December 19th Filed in: News, Letters to the Editor

Argus Leader

December 18, 2011

I’ve read a lot of nonsense about the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011 (H.R. 1633). The biggest nonsense is coming from people calling this issue “imaginary” or “fairy dust.”

In rural America, this issue is no laughing matter. I am a 27 year-old cattleman from Sturgis, hoping to make a career out of feeding the world safe and nutritious beef. However, bizarre regulations coming from this administration are making it difficult for the next generation of cowboys to choose ranching as a profession.

This administration has had every opportunity to encourage job creation and ignite the economy in rural America. Those opportunities are ignored, and instead insane regulations are pursued. These regulations are killing opportunities on farms and ranches. With big government’s heavy hand, we risk putting the providers of food out of business.

Coarse particulate matter (dust) is one of several criteria pollutants for which EPA sets a National Ambient Air Quality Standard as mandated by the Clean Air Act. EPA already regulates farm dust. This is not imaginary. The fact that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced she was considering regulating dust at levels twice as stringent as the current standard was frightening to those of us living in dusty regions of the country.

Cattlewoman-turned-Congresswoman Kristi Noem introduced some common-sense legislation to allow state and local governments to set dust regulations as appropriate for specific regions of the country.
The federal government has no business regulating farm dust that has never been proved to cause negative health effects at ambient levels. I am proud of Noem and the 267 members of Congress who joined her in support of this bill. I feel good that someone in Washington is looking out for farm and ranch families throughout the country.

Britton Blair
Cattleman
Sturgis