Missouri Farm Bureau testifies against Obama-era coal regulations
Missouri Farm Bureau offered testimony recently at an Environmental Protection Agency’s Listening Session in Kansas City regarding its proposal to repeal Obama-era global warming regulations aimed at the coal industry. The rules, which the Obama administration called the “Clean Power Plan,” would have impacted farmers and ranchers by dramatically increasing energy costs, with an almost negligible effect on greenhouse gas emissions.
MOFB has opposed regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the federal Clean Air Act for many years. It stringently opposed the “cap and trade” legislation in 2009 that Congress eventually failed to pass. MOFB continued to oppose the Obama Administration’s subsequent efforts to creatively interpret the Clean Air Act to impose restrictions. Courts stopped these rules from going into effect due to the lack of legislative authority and scientific cost-benefit support for their implementation. Last year, President Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced their intention to review and repeal these rules.
“Missouri’s farmers and ranchers are leading the way in developing more sustainable practices, which will have a far greater benefit to the environment than these rules under even under the most optimistic scenario,” said Eric Bohl, MOFB’s director of Public Affairs. “Through innovation and experience, farmers and ranchers are using far fewer inputs today than they were just a few years ago to create even more food and fiber for the world.”
The Obama Administration’s 2014 Regulatory Impact Analysis projected that the CPP would reduce CO2 emissions by, at most, only 1.3 percent of projected global emissions in 2030. MOFB believes the billions of dollars of costs to citizens for this rule are simply not worth such a tiny impact.
