WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, has cosponsored H.R. 1633, the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act introduced by Congresswoman Kristi Noem to temporarily prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from imposing stricter dust standards under the Clean Air Act.  Without this legislation, the EPA is threatening costly new regulations against dust that is kicked up by driving on dirt roads, trailing livestock, or working in fields.  This regulation would unnecessarily hamper the ability of farmers, ranchers, and other agribusinesses to continue to conduct business, and could result in lost jobs throughout the rural economy.

“These big city bureaucrats at the EPA just don’t get it,” said Rehberg, a fifth generation Rancher from Billings.  “Driving on dirt roads between fields in Fergus County is nothing like heavy traffic kicking up clouds of dust on a dirt road in San Francisco.  These regulations may seem like a good idea on paper from a desk in Washington, D.C., but out in rural America where farmers and ranchers are barely making ends meet, we shouldn’t be wasting even a minute to comply with another onerous and unnecessary federal regulation.  This legislation forces the EPA to consider that what works in the big cities probably isn’t going to work in Montana.”

Rehberg and Noem’s legislation creates a year-long prohibition against revising any National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) applicable to coarse Particulate Matter (PM) and limiting federal regulation of dust where it is already regulated under state and local laws. One form of regulated matter – dust - is kicked up by driving on unpaved roads or by farmers working in their fields, and is composed primarily of ground up dirt and naturally occurring organic materials.  The EPA is considering a more stringent standard which a recent study by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association shows many rural areas will not be able to meet.

Additionally, the legislation preserves flexibility for states and local officials to address any rural dust issues before the federal government would get the authority to do so.  If unregulated at the state or local level, the Administrator could not regulate this type of dust unless the EPA could prove substantial adverse health effects caused by the dust and report that the benefits of rural dust regulation outweigh economic costs in the local communities.

“For over 100 years Montana’s farm and ranch families have been feeding the world without unnecessary federal regulations getting in the way of a hard day’s work on the land,” said Errol Rice, Executive Vice President of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. “Denny is a rancher himself and he knows that a pickup truck with a stock trailer is going to kick up some dirt on a back road in rural Montana. The Montana Stockgrowers Association appreciates Denny’s hard work to protect ranchers from unnecessary federal overreach like regulating agriculture dust."