Implementing the Air Consent Agreement

摘要

In 2000, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) began applying federal air-quality laws to AFOs (Animal Feeding Operations). In order to improve its methods of estimating emissions, livestock commodity groups and the EPA created the Air Consent Agreement. The Air Consent Agreement is a negotiated agreement between the EPA and the livestock industry that provides producers legal protection in exchange for data. The agreement will involve participation of selected operations in a two-year monitoring study. "Producers are spending money now to avoid the risk of a much larger [air-pollution] penalty later," says Albert Heber, Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. The EPA will use this collected data to establish nationwide policies.