EPA Finally Applies Common Sense to Spilled Milk

Spilled milk is well-known for its place in the old lesson against indulging in regret.  In recent years, it’s become shorthand for one of the unnecessarily burdensome and nonsensical regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, wanted to place on American agriculture.

Crazy as it sounds, the EPA actually wanted to apply regulations designed to prevent oil from discharging into U.S. waterways to the spilled milk from containers used in dairy production.

The good news is that this week, after more than two years of contemplating an exemption for milk and milk product containers, the EPA finally backed off and finalized the exemption.  I was part of a legislative effort led by Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska to expedite a decision by the EPA, as a cosponsor of a bill that also would hold dairy producers harmless from fines and other penalties in the interim.

Now, with the exemption final, dairy producers nationwide can breathe a sigh of relief.  The dairy economy is challenging enough without such a ridiculous federal regulation being added to the cost of doing business.

I will continue to work to make sure the EPA understands the significant impact its rules and regulations have on agriculture and, in turn, consumers.  Regrettably, the EPA has yet to back off its effort to regulate dust kicked up by the combine in the field.  I hope that, in the end, the agency applies the same common sense to dust that it did to spilled milk.