President Barack Obama’s newly appointed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Gina McCarthy pledged to build trust with farmers in Iowa and elsewhere who have been roundly critical of federal regulation in a speech in Des Moines this week, according to the Des Moines Register.
“My commitment to you is that at the end of my term, we will have a stronger, more productive, more trusting relationship between EPA and the agriculture community,” McCarthy said. “Why are we going to do that? It benefits me, it benefits you, and it will make this country stronger.”
Many Iowa farmers, who have chafed at the thought of regulation of farm dust, heavy penalties for farm run-off, and other far-reaching EPA regulations, were reported to have applauded her warmly. “She’s probably the most on-track EPA director we’ve ever talked to,” said Nancy Beyer, a co-owner of Koszta Farm Corporation, a corn and soybean farm in rural Belle Plaine. “This reception was quite favorable.”
She did not mention in her remarks this week’s petition by the oil industry to lower the amount of ethanol that must be blended into the U.S. gasoline supply in 2014.
