http://www.organicconsumers.org/Toxic/factory_farms.cfm
Factory Farms Want Exemption from Air Pollution Laws
From Sierra Club 9/24/03
Bush Administration Nearing Deal to Weaken Protections for Communities
Near Factory Farms
WASHINGTON - September 24 - Newly obtained documents from the
Environmental Protection Agency reveal that the Bush Administration is
formalizing a back-room deal with the livestock and poultry industries
that would let giant factory farm polluters off the hook for violations
of the Clean Air Act and the Superfund hazardous waste law that have
protected communities for decades. With this new incriminating evidence
in hand, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Center
on Race, Poverty and the Environment filed a lawsuit today under the
Freedom of Information Act, demanding that the Bush Administration
divulge information about its closed negotiations with the meat industry.
"Be it Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force or this back-room deal
for the meat and milk industries,the Bush Administration continues to
let polluters write the rules while leaving the public out of the
process," said Ken Midkiff of the Sierra Club.
In May, environmental groups obtained an industry letter documenting
clandestine negotiations with the Bush Administration to shield giant
factory farms from the requirements of the Clean Air Act and Superfund
hazardous-waste laws. Since then, the Bush Administration has been
working on a deal that would allow factory farms to continue polluting
without any threat of prosecution.
The Bush Administration has rebuffed environmental groups' requests for
information about the closed-door meetings, claiming that it has "not
entered into any 'safe harbor' agreement." However, environmental groups
recently obtained a copy of the supposedly non-existent agreement.
According to that draft, the Administration would allow the meat and
milk industries to ignore clean air and hazardous waste laws
indefinitely, asking only that industry "monitor" its emissions.
The Bush Administration has persistently refused to address pollution
from factory farms, which concentrate thousands of animals in a single
location and release enormous quantities of harmful pollutants. And Utah
Mike Leavitt, nominated by President Bush to head the Environmental
Protection Agency, has a history of favoring polluting agricultural
interests; as governor of Utah, Mr. Leavitt helped to pass a law
preventing citizens from bringing state suits against agricultural
businesses.
"Exempting animal factories from basic environmental laws like the Clean
Air Act would put thousands of communities at risk," said Brent Newell
of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment. "Instead of
protecting those communities, the Bush Administration is working to
protect polluters from the laws that safeguard the public welfare."
A copy of the draft agreement, the meat industry's memo proposing the
amnesty agreement, the environmental groups request for enforcement
actions, as well as other relevant documents can be found here.
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Bob Allen,http://ozarker.org/bob
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of Man's oldest exercises
in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral
justification for selfishness JKG
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