?Clean water, clear rules? was the plea of the American Farm Bureau Federation president at the organization?s 100th anniversary convention.
The reference is to the second Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule, now in its final stages.
Ron Hays, from the Radio Oklahoma Network, did some excellent reporting at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention and allowed us to air comments he recorded.
AUDIO: Profit Matters 1-18-19
American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall believes his organization shaped the new WOTUS Rule during the Trump Administration and now, the goal must be to bring it to its tortured regulatory conclusion.
Duvall told delegates of his interaction with former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Scott Pruitt.
“I told him the new WOTUS should be one or two pages. It needs to have clear definitions and a farmer needs to be able to put it in his truck, ride across his farm and say, ‘Yes, that’s waters of the U.S. and that’s not,'” Duvall said
Duvall then talked about Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, saying he described the new WOTUS in the same words he had told Pruitt. “That’s not Zippy Duvall, but the power of Farm Bureau.”
Duvall says it is now up to every farmer to comment “because the environmental community hates this rule and they will comment.”
“Farm Bureau never walked away from a fight and we are not going to do so now,” said Duvall in his concluding remarks.
