WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, today released the following statement after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule on Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know-Act (EPCRA) reporting requirements, clarifying that air emissions from farms and ranches are exempt from EPCRA reporting requirements.
“I’m pleased the EPA has acted to give further certainty to farmers, ranchers, and local emergency responders who were never meant to be subject to these onerous reporting requirements,” said Chairman Roberts. “I appreciate this Administration’s deregulatory approach toward the American farmer and rancher, who need a reprieve from government red tape.”
During the 115th Congress, Chairman Roberts cosponsored the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method (FARM) Act, which exempts air emissions from animal waste from being subject to Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) reporting requirements. Click here to read the legislation, which was included in the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2018 and signed by the president in March 2018.
This rulemaking is the final step in clarifying that farmers and ranchers do not need to estimate air emissions released from their operations and report those estimates to the government. Farmers and ranchers were never intended to be subject to this reporting requirement, and without Congressional action, livestock and poultry farms with roughly 200 head of cattle or a pig farm with two swine finishing barns would have potentially been subject to the reporting requirement.
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