Groups sue EPA over farm emissions
WASHINGTON, D.C. January 16, 2009 12:02am
A coalition of environmental groups is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a last-minute Bush administration rule that exempts factory farms from federal laws requiring them to alert government officials when they release unsafe levels of toxic emissions into the surrounding community.
The environmental law firm Earthjustice filed the suit on behalf of the groups, arguing that the exemption will harm people living and working near factory farms.
Earthjustice is representing the Waterkeeper Alliance, Sierra Club, Environmental Integrity Project, the Humane Society of the United States, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future and Center for Food Safety.
So-called “factory farms,” formally known as Confined Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs, are large-scale livestock facilities that confine large numbers of animals in relatively small spaces. A large factory farm may contain upwards of 1,000 cattle, 2,500 hogs or 125,000 chickens. Read More
Make no mistake about the intent of this lawsuit. It’s not about helping the environment; it’s an effort to make regulations so onerous that it would be impossible for producers to continue their operations. These size operations are already under strict environmental regulations. Adding more will only further the goal of a meat free society that has become the center of these groups existence.
1 comment:
Thank you for this post. The EPA and the methane tax has been a topic we have discussed in our ag classes. We need to educate our youth on these current events so that their classwork has a "real world" connection.
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