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see also, in Grist: EPA offers air-pollution immunity to factory farms
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Court Rules Against Green Groups, Lets Factory Farms Off the Hook
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Swine By Us
Grist Magazine, July 19, 2007
Straight to the Source
Some 2,600 livestock companies are participating in a sweet deal from
the U.S. EPA. In exchange for paying a minimal fee and agreeing to
participate in an air-quality data-collection program, factory farms
can basically be exempt from Clean Air Act requirements for 30 months.
When the swap was announced in early 2005, environmentalists cried
foul; green groups sued the EPA, claiming that the agency failed to
follow rulemaking procedures. But this week, a federal appeals court
ruled in favor of the EPA, in effect allowing factory farms
participating in the program to pollute and stink as much as they like
without fear of litigation. "The EPA decided to give them blanket
amnesty in the form of, 'You send us a check ... and we'll guarantee
that no one will sue you,'" says David Bookbinder, senior attorney for
the Sierra Club. Data collection began this summer; of the 14,000 farms
signed on to the compliance agreement, only 24 will actually be
studied. The rest are happy as pigs in ... well, you know.
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