[Greenbuilding] EPA sued over failing to act on emissions

[sanjay jain]

Environmental groups like the Sierra Club are finally waking up to the climate change impacts of industrial animal agriculture.

Groups Sue EPA Over Failure To Regulate Emissions From Factory Farms
Livestock make up a substantial percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions, and a group of environmental and animal welfare groups have had enough of what they say is inadequate Environmental Protection Agency oversight on those emissions.
This week, a group of eight organizations, including the Humane Society of the United States, Center for Food Safety and the Sierra Club, filed two lawsuits against the EPA for not doing enough to control emissions from large Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. One lawsuit deals with ammonia pollution, and the other addresses methane and other air pollutants. 
The lawsuits say that the EPA hasn’t yet responded to petitions sent in 2009 and 2011 by some of the groups asking the agency to regulate emissions from CAFOs, a delay that one of the lawsuits calls “unreasonable.” The lawsuit also states that, by refusing to respond to the petitions, the EPA has continued with its business-as-usual approach to CAFO emissions, instead of implementing meaningful changes. 

 “CAFOs degrade the environment,” the organizations write in the lawsuit tackling methane and other air pollutants. “Their emissions exacerbate climate change; impair air quality; lead to the formation of haze, fine particulate matter, and ozone; and contribute to the impairment of land and water resources, causing ‘dead zones’ in waterways and acidification of soil and waters. CAFO air pollution is nationally significant, noxious, and dangerous to public health and welfare, wildlife, and the environment.”For that reason, the groups say, the EPA needs to regulate the emissions. The petitions called on the agency to classify CAFOs as pollution sources under the Clean Air Act, and set emissions standards for existing CAFOs. The lawsuits call on the agency to respond to those petitions.  Read the rest at: Groups Sue EPA Over Failure To Regulate Emissions From Factory Farms
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If people in glass houses didn't throw stones, we'd all be living in glass houses!



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