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Animal Factories Using Closed-Door Meetings
with Bush Administration
to Evade Environmental Laws
The CAFO Papers:
Posted October 2003:
Bush Administration Issues Proposal to Let Animal Factories Pollute Communities; Backroom Deal with Meat Industry Would Grant Immunity from Lawsuits.
The Bush EPA issued a consent decree that proposes to give Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) immunity from the Clean Air Act and Superfund law. This decision had been suspected by environmental groups and is only now being made public by the Bush Administration. To see the document released to Congress, click here. (172kb PDF file).
Posted September 2003:
Leaked Documents Reveal Deal
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups recently received a leaked document that details an amnesty deal between the EPA and factory farm polluters. Under the leaked deal, EPA "covenants not to sue" giant animal factories, also known as "concentrated animal feeding operations" or "CAFOs," for violations of the Clean Air Act and the comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act ("CERCLA" or the superfund law). In exchange for EPA's commitment not to sue, CAFOs will pay a mere $500 in penalties and will contribute $2,500 towards a monitoring fund. To see the document, click here. (2mb PDF file) To see the Sierra Club's explanation of this document and the problems with this amnesty deal, click here. (91kb PDF file).
Prior to receiving proof that the Bush administration is close to finalizing this deal to let polluters off the hook, Sierra Club lawyers requested that the EPA make available documents of this meeting under the Freedom of Information Act. To see the request, click here. (792kb PDF file). The EPA denied access to such records, and claimed that "there were no draft or underlying records relating to the topics described above at any state of development," although the leaked amnesty agreement reveals otherwise. To see their denial of the request, click here. (255kb PDF file).
Posted May 2003:
Industry Confidential Proposal
Bush administration officials at the Environmental Protection Agency are contemplating an alarming agreement proposed by the meat industry that would shield polluting animal factories from enforcement for Clean Air Act or Superfund violations. A copy of the industry's confidential proposal memo was recently released by an anonymous source concerned with the consequences of exempting animal factories from basic environmental protections. The industry proposal is available here. (100kb PDF file)
Posted May 2003:
Concerns From State and Local Officials
The agreement is so flawed that state and local air pollution administrators pulled out of the discussions and have now written a letter to EPA Administrator Whitman expressing "serious concerns" over the safe harbor agreement. The letter from the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators (STAPPA) and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officers (ALAPCO) also discloses that the EPA is considering effectively exempting animal factories from the Clean Air Act and Superfund. A 1mb PDF of the state and local administrator's letter is available here. (1mb PDF file)
Posted May 2003:
Petition from Environmental Groups
In response, a joint letter was sent to EPA Administrator Whitman today by the Association of Irritated Residents, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, Environmental Defense, Environmental Integrity Project, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club. The letter urges the Bush administration to neither remove animal factories from the Clean Air Act’s permitting and pollution control programs nor grant immunity to animal factories violating federal law. For a copy, click here. (1mb PDF file)
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