Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 8/22/17


Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt is urging farmers and ranchers to comment on a push to repeal the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule in a video released by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). 

Pruitt is asking cattle industry stakeholders to submit their comments on WOTUS before the agency’s deadline on Aug. 28 during a 78-second video produced by the NCBA when Pruitt visited a ranch in Colorado earlier this month. The beef organization is offering cattle producers the opportunity to file official comments through its website, the NCBA said in a news release promoting the video. 

In the video, Pruitt says the EPA is “trying to fix the challenges from the 2015 (WOTUS) rule, where the Obama administration re-imagined their authority under the Clean Water Act.” He continues that the changes established conditions that the NCBA and others believe were too generic and created uncertainty and confusion among farmers and ranchers.

The NCBA said it “has helped lead the charge” against the Obama-era rule and Pruitt said in the video the agency is seeking “to get it right as we go forward.”

Pruitt ¬— who was confirmed as EPA chief in February — has come under fire from groups like the Environmental Defense Fund for pushing to curb earlier rule changes established to reduce pollution, enforce clean air and water laws and generate unbiased scientific guidance on such issues. His appearance in the video reportedly also has drawn the attention of experts on government ethics, according to Environment & Energy News, although an NCBA spokesman told the news agency the message was designed to generate comments as part of an innocuous request, not to promote an agenda.

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