BISMARCK — A bureaucrat that believes in following legislative intent. That’s an oddity in today’s world. But it seems to be ringing true through the Trump Administration, and especially in the EPA.
I had the opportunity last week to have a meeting with Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the EPA. And the most refreshing thing that he started out with, was the statement that it is not the job of agencies to legislate, rather it’s the job of agencies to implement the rules and the legislation how it was intended.
He said, quote, “We will need to make sure that those definitions are made stronger, so that legislative intent is never breached again in the future.
Wow! That is remarkable to hear from a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.
Throughout the meeting we talked about mainly the clean power plan, as it was a meeting that we, at NDFB, along with Congressman Cramer, had set up in conjunction, to have the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives come in and meet with Pruitt at the same time, and talk about the over-reach that was happening in the Obama Administration and the EPA under him having to do with the clean power plan, which would have put a hardship not only on us in agriculture, but just general citizens of our state, and of our country to be quite frank.
So I had the opportunity to share just how that burden would have played out in agriculture, of an increase of electrical rates anywhere from 40 to 60 percent, which the clean power plan would have done.
He gave assurances to us that day, that they will roll back the poor and ill-advised clean power plan. That those investments to improve the clean burning of coal will not be negated by future administrators or rule-making through the EPA.
We just need to fix the things that were done negative and improve upon some definitions to make sure that, yes, we keep the environment clean, but we’re able to do business in a method that doesn’t break the people of our state, and ultimately, break our country.
For questions or comments, please contact Dawn Smith-Pfeifer.
— Daryl Lies, President of North Dakota Farm Bureau
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