Continuing his commitment to protect the rural way of life, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) today voted for the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011. This legislation would prohibit further EPA regulation of farm dust, as well as exclude from federal standards farm dust that is regulated at the state or local level. 

“In the last few years, the EPA has attempted to regulate literally everything on the farm and the attempt to regulate dust is the most extreme example,” Luetkemeyer said. “From trying to force dairy farmers to create a complex oil spill prevention plan to regulating farm dust, it is clear that the folks in Washington who are coming up with these rules don’t understand agriculture or the rural way of life. This legislation is necessary to protect our nation’s rural economies. It is just plain common sense.”

The legislation develops a two prong approach to preventing the EPA from regulating farm dust, while still maintaining the protections of the Clean Air Act to the public’s health and welfare.  First, it provides immediate relief to farmers and rural areas by preventing revision of the current dust standard for one year from date of enactment.  Secondly, it provides flexibility for states, localities, and tribes to regulate “nuisance dust.”  

The bill also exempts dust from EPA authority where it is already regulated on the local level. State and local regulators have developed nuisance dust control measures that are currently being implemented in rural America. Different environmental and geographic characteristics mean effective dust control can vary from region to region.

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