COMMISSIONER FARMER ASKS SENATORS TO BACK BILL PROHIBITING EPA FROM REGULATING LIVESTOCK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, March 16, 2009

For more information contact:
Bill Clary

(502) 564-1137

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer urged Kentucky’s U.S. senators, Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, to support federal legislation that would prohibit the federal government from regulating livestock under the Clean Air Act.

“I believe that this legislation is necessary to protect the livelihood of Kentucky’s animal agriculture producers, who collectively are responsible for nearly $3 billion in farm sales in the Commonwealth, and whose continued prosperity is essential for the future of rural Kentucky,” Commissioner Farmer wrote in a letter to Kentucky’s senators.

Senate Bill 527 would prohibit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from requiring livestock operations to obtain Clean Air Act Title V permits for greenhouse gas emissions caused by biological processes.

An EPA report states that greenhouse gases from the entire U.S. agricultural sector represented just 6.4 percent of the total greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide equivalents, Commissioner Farmer wrote. He noted that producers can provide soil carbon sequestration and renewable energy sources as carbon offsets.