Just be thankful it wasn't a drone.
"EPA flyovers spark rancher protests" Associated Press, July 03, 2012
DES MOINES — Midwest ranchers have never been enamored with environmental regulators, but they really began to complain after learning federal inspectors were flying over to look for problems.
The Environmental Protection Agency flies over power plants and other facilities nationwide to identify potential air, water, and land pollution. It began using aerial surveillance in the Midwest in 2010 to check farms for violations of federal clean water regulations.
Ranchers who object to the program said they are not trying to hide anything. It’s the quiet approach the EPA took with the program designed to spot illegal disposal of animal waste that they find upsetting. Most were not even aware of the flyovers until regional EPA officials mentioned it at a meeting three months ago.
‘‘For me, it just creeps into the ‘Big Brother is watching you’ area, to where the government just feels like it’s getting more and more intrusive,’’ said Buck Wehrbein, who manages a cattle feeding operation in Mead, Neb.
EPA officials explained during a meeting with ranchers in West Point, Neb., that they lease small planes that fly EPA staffers over cattle operations. The staffers take photographs as they seek evidence of illegal animal waste running off into rivers and streams.
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"Appeals court upholds EPA emissions rules; Heat-trapping factory gases, autos targeted" by Dina Cappiello | Associated Press, June 27, 2012
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the first-ever regulations aimed at reducing the gases blamed for global warming, handing down perhaps the most significant decision on the issue since a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases could be controlled as air pollutants.
The rules, which had been challenged by industry groups and several states, will reduce emissions of six heat-trapping gases from large industrial facilities such as factories and power plants, as well as from automobile tailpipes....
Michael Gerrard, director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said no one expected the ‘‘complete slam dunk’’ issued by the court Tuesday, and said the decision was exceeded in importance only by the Supreme Court ruling five years ago.
It also lands during a presidential election year where there are sharp differences between the two candidates when it comes to how best to deal with global warming.
President Obama’s administration has come under fierce criticism from Republicans, including Mitt Romney, for pushing ahead with the regulations after Congress did not pass climate legislation and after the Bush administration resisted such steps....
Carol Browner, Obama’s former energy and climate adviser, said the decision ‘‘should put an end, once and for all, to any questions about the EPA’s legal authority to protect us from dangerous industrial carbon pollution.’’
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Also see: Alphabet Agency: Can't Read EPA Post
