From Omaha.com, more indications that the EPA is out of control. I’m beginning to think the EPA is an enemy of the citizens of the United States with behavior like this. I guess we’ll need genetically engineered cattle with built in camouflage now.
EPA told to come clean on feedlot flyovers
By Joe Duggan
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN — A spy in the sky over Nebraska and Iowa has gotten under the hides of some livestock producers and their representatives in Washington.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s aerial photo surveillance of livestock feeding operations in both states flew under the radar for nearly two years.
But now the flyover program, conducted to help enforce the Clean Water Act, has prompted a demand for answers from all five members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation.
The delegation delivered a joint letter Tuesday to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, listing 25 questions about the legality of the surveillance and the privacy rights of business owners. Although the letter stopped short of calling for an end to the flyovers, the two senators and three representatives want to know more about their purpose.
“Nebraskans are rightfully skeptical of an agency which continues to unilaterally insert itself into the affairs of rural America,” Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said in a statement.
EPA representatives in Washington, D.C., did not immediately return messages seeking reaction. A spokesman for the agency’s Region 7 office in Kansas City said he was not authorized to comment.
In 2010, Nebraska had 862 concentrated animal feeding operations and Iowa 1,607, making them the two leading livestock states in Region 7, says the agency’s website. The region also includes Kansas and Missouri.
The livestock operations fall under an assortment of state and federal regulations intended to protect streams and aquifers from animal waste pollution, which can occur in the form of runoff from feed lots and discharges from manure lagoons.
The two-page letter was written at the urging of the Nebraska Cattlemen, an industry group made up of cattle producers.
“The frustration for livestock producers really is just the idea that the government has resorted to spying on facilities,” said Kristen Hassebrook, the group’s director of natural resources and environmental affairs.
Full story here. h/t to WUWT reader “Neo”.
Meanwile, back at Chateau Hansen…
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/06/02/wine-from-gobi-desert-takes-aim-at-chinas-growing-thirst/
The writers of “The Simpson’s Movie” were more prescient than we ever knew. As Grandpa Simpson opined, “EEEE PAAAA, EEEE PAAA”, as the Agency put the glass dome over the city of Springfield utilizing helicopters.
Pssst, have SAM will travel!
Nebraska Congressmen question EPA aerial surveillance on ranches
Brett Wessler, Staff Writer | Updated: May 30, 2012
Congressmen from Nebraska sent a letter to EPA Director Lisa Jackson seeking an explanation after livestock operations in the state were monitored via aerial surveillance.
Republican Reps. Adrian Smith, Jeff Fortenberry and Lee Terry, as well as Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson and GOP Sen. Mike Johanns are concerned with privacy and other issues for the livestock operators and other landowners monitored by the agency.
“Farmers and ranchers in Nebraska pride themselves in the stewardship of our state’s natural resources,” wrote the Nebraska lawmakers in a release on Congressman Adrian Smith’s website. “As you might imagine, this practice has resulted in privacy concerns among our constituents and raises several questions.”
The bipartisan group asks almost two-dozen questions about the flyover and if findings resulted in additional enforcement activities. The letter asks for a response by June 10.
continued… http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/latest/Nebraska-Congressme…
Out of control indeed. I bet they also have more powers of siezure than the police.
EPA WILL COST YOU AND YOUR JOBS AND MONEY
The EPA is truly out of control. Another governmental agency created to interfere with citizens.
Don’t worry, it’s just Big Brother watching.
clipe says:
June 2, 2012 at 3:31 pm
[edit] Meanwhile, back at Chateau Hansen…
Will carbon dioxide demand outpace supply?
As many farmers and ranchers know from first hand experience, it isn’t paranoia if they really are out to get you!
Time to cut their budget. If they have money, they WILL find mischief to get into.
Any warrants?
What did Americans do the last time their government insisted they didn’t need warrants?
I’m waiting for:
“Well, if they aren’t doing anything wrong, why should they care?”
The EPA and it’s cohorts use nothing but logical fallacies to justify their actions.
Congress is complicit in this! Never pass a law that states “the secretary shall determine…”. The clean air and clean water acts were chock full of this kind of language. As a result, the EPA has realized they have carte blanche to do whatever they want – with congresses approval!
Is this such a surprise ?
I KNOW every comment I make here, is run thru certain filters in the NSA,
Anthony has caught their attention.
Let them watch, it is all very boring.
America takes another step towards totalitarian dictatorship as government becomes bigger, more powerful, and unaccountable. The solution to this is small government and Ron Paul would have been the man to make it happen. That possibility seems increasingly remote now. So will Obama or Romney rein in the EPA? Not Likely!
Now I know what is wrecking my peace and quiet. I thought it was Omaha scoping out the next land-grab.
I suppose it would be rude to ask where they are getting their carbon credits from and who is paying for them.
The EPA is poisoning the economy of America, by order’s from community organizer Obama!
America’s actual health and welfare crisis
It is EPA rules that most gravely threaten our energy, economy, health, welfare, justice, and civil rights progress
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says we face grave threats to human health, welfare and justice. She’s absolutely right. However, the dangers are not due to factory or power plant emissions, or supposed effects of “dangerous manmade global warming.”
They are the result of policies and regulations that her EPA is imposing in the name of preventing climate change and other hypothetical and exaggerated environmental problems.
It is those government actions that are the gravest threat to Americans’ health, welfare, and pursuit of happiness and justice.
30 May 2012
http://www.climatechangedispatch.com/home/10213-americas-actual-health-and-welfare-crisis?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatechangedispatch%2FnkcO+%28Climate+Change+Dispatch+news%29
Beginning to think…?
I believe the EPA can be compelled to answer questions regarding this. I’m no lawyer but this sounds very much like random surveillance without probable cause to conduct the surveillance. I would think these actions should require a court order. I don’t think this should be allowed to slide. They should be subject to a subpoena.
November cannot come soon enough. If you voted for Obama last time, like I did, join me in voting for anybody but a Democrat. Hell, a space monkey would do.
Outdoor humourist Pat McMannus (sp?) wrote, “I grew up before there was such a thing as ‘pollution’. We just called it ‘dumpin stuff in the crick’.”
Any bureaucracy is like a gun. When it’s used to defend us, it’s great. When it’s used to rob us, it’s bad.
USEPA regulations should not have the force of law without Congressional review and without unbiased scientific review. By Congressional review I mean that a proposed regulation has no effect until Congress votes on it.
It is the nature of any bureaucracy to eventually lean toward totalitarianism (They answer to no one and no one is accountable.)
I assume they are using Reaper drones…armed with the latest “Crucifier” anti-polluter missiles.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/04/30/breaking-epas-crucifier-resigns/
The EPA protects the enviroment from we the people. But who is going to protect we the people from the enviroment? (Let alone protect us from the EPA?)
There are analogs which predict that, if a weak El Nino sets in, (which seems likely,) we may be in for a winter as different from last winter as the winter of 1976-77 was different from 1975-76.
Just as this hard winter hits the EPA-inspired coal-plant shut-downs will start effecting Ohio, and electricity rates will go through the roof. Ohio will learn first hand what the words “fuel poverty” mean. Of course, the winter will not truly set in until after the election on Nov. 2.
I urge the people of Ohio to study what is going to happen to their electrical rates, before the election, and not wait until a winter like 1976-77 sets in.
If we the people don’t watch out for we the people, as sure as shooting no one else will.
Oh oh. I used the word “shooting.” What is that buzzing noise overhead?
Today Nebraska; tomorrow the World!
u.k.(us) says:
June 2, 2012 at 4:34 pm
“Is this such a surprise ?
I KNOW every comment I make here, is run thru certain filters in the NSA,
Anthony has caught their attention.”
Ahem. I don’t have an URL handy but there are publically accessible websites that track all blogs. You can select commenter names and see their entire comment history. That’s all pretty cheap to set up and some people did. I mean, google or bing do it for the entire web all the time.