By DTN's Washington Insider

Is rural dust a health problem? The EPA might think so. (DTN file photo)

A key aspect of the climate change debate is that it is taking place largely in response to threats that are unusually "up close and personal," as they say.

These are not the usual threats from international groups, although these have been growing since the developing countries and the European Union conspired to rig the Kyoto Protocol to give China and India and other developing countries a pass to become the world's largest polluters, and to give the EU "environmental credit" for the failed Eastern Europe plants. That gambit delayed effective greenhouse gas emissions controls for more than a decade, observers suggest, but it did not have much of an effect on U.S. policies.

The United States cried foul on that deal and refused to even consider ratification. This time around, there are still threats from those quarters -- especially now ahead of the Copenhagen conference in December, but those are not the main movers of the U.S. debate. This time, real, near-term and pointed threats from executive agencies that U.S. courts are requiring to implement regulate greenhouse gas emissions appear to be convincing at least some hard-bitten business groups that it is in their interest to support a legislative approach.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., articulated this situation clearly last week. Concerning the issue of whether the administration would implement greenhouse gas emissions controls on its own if there is no legislation, Kerry told the press, "Well, EPA is poised to move. Everybody needs to understand that. I'm going to make this as clear as I can: I don't think anybody is going to wind up [blocking] EPA, because there's filibuster-proof capacity to prevent that from happening."

Kerry continued, "I'll personally stand on the Senate floor, day and night, to prevent that from happening. Therefore, success in this is not defined by stopping a Senate bill. The reason is, EPA will then regulate without assistance to coal, without allocation of allowances that help companies to make the transition. And then you're out there on your own. So the game in town, folks, is here. It's in the Congress, where we have the ability to mitigate the transitional costs and to be reasonable in the process. That's something people really need to focus on."

There are still many observers in and around the Capitol who do not believe that Kerry or the administration can do what he is threatening, and a number of those represent agricultural groups. However, an unrelated case involving an environmental issue concerning agriculture also was in the news last week, and likely will revive a few interesting concerns about EPA's approaches to agricultural regulations.

The National Cattlemen Beef Association went public on Friday to criticize what it calls, "flawed and inconclusive science" in an EPA review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter. In spite of the complicated title, the issue is dust.

EPA recently made a new study in their required review of the coarse particulate matter standards. Tamara Theis, NCBA's Chief Environmental Counsel observed, "Coarse particulate matter is nothing more than the dust kicked up by cars or trucks traveling on dirt roads, a tractor tilling a field, or cattle moving around on dirt." She added, "Studies do not show that rural dust is a health concern."

Nevertheless, EPA apparently thinks it is. In 2006, EPA set the coarse particulate matter standard at 150 micrograms per cubic meter of air, but this year it says it found adverse health effects from dust at levels much, much lower than that, so it is proposing a rural air quality standard lower levels -- "...below those that occur naturally throughout many Western states including pristine National parks," NCBA said.

The cattlemen are concerned that air standards at that level would mean that much of the country would be over the limit much of the time, and that cattle producers would not be able to raise livestock that kick up dust as they walk around, NCBA said. In addition, it thinks, "...this issue goes well beyond agriculture. States would be required to impose extreme control requirements and limitations on many businesses to ensure that the standard is met."

So, it is easy to see why businesses, farms and many others are concerned about the prospect of EPA standards being applied to GHG emissions, particularly given the agency's history of relying on unreasonable criteria. This threat is appearing to make increasing inroads as some prominent business groups move to support the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee bill. Whether it will be powerful enough to move legislation through the remaining committee mark-ups and through the eventual floor debate remains to be seen. However, the stakes for agriculture are enormous and this fight should be watched carefully as it proceeds, Washington Insider believes.

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