At Shop Talk Tuesday night, presented by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance, 4th District Indiana Congressman Todd Rokita didn’t mince words when talking about the Environmental Protection Agency. The first event in the series was held at the Mike Beard farm near Frankfort. Rokita was one of the guest speakers and the first question from the audience concerned the EPA, whose workers triggered the release of a million gallons of wastewater into a Colorado river last week. Rokita is confident that Congress will hold hearings.
“But ultimately this is about leadership,” he told those gathered in Clinton County. “You have activists in that agency who don’t understand or don’t care to understand the businesses and industries over which they regulate.”
Rokita told HAT the Waters of the U.S. rule that agriculture is trying to get withdrawn is flat out wrong.
“It is wrong for the activist EPA to just so distort the plain meaning of a term, navigable water, to somehow include an irrigation ditch or even a pond that occurs after a heavy rainfall. It’s just beyond comprehension so that’s a reason to fight, to fight against the stupidity of again an activist agency.”
Rokita co-sponsored H.R.1732, the Regulatory Integrity Protection Act of 2015, which has moved to the Senate.
“It’s a good bill. It repeals EPA’s authority in this regard and rescinds their definition of navigable water to something that makes sense and is appreciated by common sense people. The attention needs to be turned on the Senate to keep that fight going, and let’s get this on the President’s desk. Let’s have every American see how silly this EPA is, especially in light of the damage they’ve done out west now in that river.”
As the Aug. 28 implementation date approaches for the EPA’s final rule on WOTUS the National Corn Growers Association has demanded the EPA postpone implementing its controversial rule and strongly supports congressional efforts to rescind the rule.
The need for this action became all the more clear with the release of highly critical internal memos from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers related to the rule.
More Shop Talks are scheduled with Indiana legislators, and HAT will have details Monday.