IMPORTANCE
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is continuously in the process of revising changing its air quality standards. In 2006 EPA significantly revised the standards for dust, both fine and coarse particulate matter (PM) and will be proposing new standards in 2007 for ground level ozone in 2007. These revisions, amongst the most costly regulations ever developed by the federal government, will significantly impact agricultural production and processing sectors in the coming years.

BACKGROUND
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to periodically review its air quality standards to ensure they protect public health and welfare. Yet, EPA is already in the process of significantly revising them. While EPA has failed to demonstrate any adverse impacts on air quality standards associated with agricultural production, the agency continues to target the agricultural sector.
When fully adopted and implemented, these revised air quality standards will impose burdensome regulatory controls over many agricultural activities, classifying farms as stationary sources that are regulated in the same manner as electric utilities and oil refineries. This will lead to mandatory controls on dust from dirt roads and fields and increased litigation against long established agricultural operations.

NPPC POSITION
NPPC is strongly opposed to this unwarranted effort to further regulate agricultural operations.  EPA is seeking to eliminate long standing agricultural exclusions even though it failed to show any association between agricultural production and air quality standards. These revisions will impose huge costs on the agricultural economy, providing little or no public health or environmental benefit, while imposing impossible to attain standards on producers.

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