Secret EPA campaign to promote water law angers Montana agriculture interests

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Featured

Secret EPA campaign to promote water law angers Montana ag interests

By TOM LUTEY [e-mail]

Updated 10 hrs ago

Montana farm and ranch groups are angry at the Environmental Protection Agency, which was caught running a secret propaganda campaign to sway public opinion about new clean water rules affecting agriculture.

A report Monday by the Government Accountability Office concludes that the EPA used “covert propaganda” to tip public opinion in favor of the “Waters of the United States,” rule before the agency began collecting public comment on it.

“They’re supposed to take comments on this rule, as part of the rule-making process,” said John Youngberg of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation. “Because they were out there promoting this, they got ahead of themselves a whole bunch.”

Farm Bureau representatives are in Washington D.C. this week to urge Congress to block the EPA from spending money on rolling out the rule, which expands federal protection of waterways and sources of drinking water.

[Nitram]

1. Conservatives and many farmers are paranoid about new Clean Water Act rules.

They are worried the EPA will declare farm ponds to be waters of the U.S. the EPA has already clarified that the rules do not apply to farm ponds as long as they do not empty into waters of the U.S.

[Delmette]

2. What did the EPA say that was misleading?

[Ptah]

3. I think the upset is with the secret propaganda campaign, not truthfulness.

<snip>

Auditors took specific issue with the EPA’s use of the social media amplification tool Thunderclap, which the agency used to encourage hundreds of Twitter users to redistribute favorable messages about the rule without disclosing the EPA as the source of the messages.

http://tvnewsroom.org/newslines/u-s/secret-epa-campaign-to-promote-water-law-angers-montana-ag-interests-50124/

[Delmette]

4. Thank you for the link.

The EPA should protect downstream states and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico. They should also acknowledge that the ponds that don't feed into the streams and rivers should not be included and adjust the rule.

[Ford_Prefect]

5. The Gazette fails to mention the decades of anti-EPA and Anti-BLM propaganda put out by the Kochs

and their multi-million dollar astro-turf Sagebrush Revolution.