Agricultural News
Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Tom Buchanan Tells Senate Committee EPA Wants Clean Water Rule to Regulate Areas That Don't Look a Bit Like Water
Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:36:34 CDT
Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Tom Buchanan testified before a subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, telling members of the Committee that the EPA Clean Water Rule now being challenged in the Federal Courts system is a rule that shows the Agency's disregard for small business, farmers and ranchers and their ability to be a productive part of American society.
Buchanan told the Committee that in regards to WOTUS "After carefully studying the proposed rule, we at Farm Bureau concluded that the rule's vague and broad language would define "waters of the United States" to include countless land areas that are common in and around farm fields and ranches across the countryside. These are areas that don't look a bit like water. They look like land, and they are farmed, but by defining them as "waters of the U.S." the rule would make it illegal to farm, build a fence, cut trees, build a house, or do most anything else there without first asking permission of the federal government and navigating a costly and complex permitting regime."
Buchanan added that Farm Bureau believes that EPA violated Federal law in how they promoted WOTUS during the public comment period. "EPA also engaged in an extraordinary social media campaign aimed at a different audience-the broader public. That campaign consisted almost entirely of non-substantive platitudes about the importance of clean water-which no one disputes. It used simplistic blogs, tweets and You Tube videos to generate purported "support" for the rule among well-intended people who have absolutely no idea what the rule would actually do or what it will cost. EPA later claimed "public" support for the rule, even though the vast majority of those who actually read the rule- state and local governments, businesses, and organizations representing virtually every segment of the U.S. economy-vehemently opposed it."
Buchanan appeared before the Senate Committee as a representative of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau as well as the American Farm Bureau.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear his full remarks- and the introduction of Buchanan by Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the Chairman of EPW.
Click on the PDF file link at the very bottom of the story to read the testimony offered by Buchanan and the supporting documents he asked be inserted into the Committee record.
buchanan-testimonyApril2016.pdf
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