Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) has introduced the Farmers Undertake Environmental Land Stewardship (FUELS) Act to ensure that regulations take into account a producer’s risk and create logical exemptions for small farmers and ranchers when it comes to storing fuel on their operations.
The action is in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent action to quietly extend the compliance data for its oil spill containment rule (Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure or SPCC).
Crawford says that rule would require farmers and ranchers who store fuel on their property to make costly improvements to their storage tanks.
“Although the rule has been delayed, farmers and ranchers are still worried about the staggering costs they will incur when EPA does implement this regulation,” he explains.
The FUELS Act would take into account a producer’s spill risk and financial resources, and give farmers more reasonable exemptions from this regulation.
“Farmers keep fuel on hand to run tractors, combines, irrigators and other machinery necessary to run their operations and provide food for America. They raise their families and earn an honest living by taking care of our natural resources. If anyone understands the importance of preserving our environment for future generations, it is America’s farmers,” he says.