by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing in the Washington Times
Team Biden will reassert that PM2.5 kills hundreds of thousands annually and that there’s no safe level of exposure
A new study claims that air emissions from farms kill 17,000 Americans per year. It’s the first shot in a second try by the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency to control American farms through junk science-fueled air pollution regulations.
The study is funded by a $10 million grant awarded by the Obama administration’s EPA, and pretends to examine fine dust and soot emissions (called “PM2.5”) from all farm operations — including machinery, tilling, fertilizer use, field burning, livestock movement, waste management and more.
It’s a silly study. For example, it estimates that total air emissions associated with U.S. apple production kill about 3.8 people per year somewhere in the general population.
Before the Trump administration came to town, the regulation of PM2.5 was a potent weapon used by the Obama administration to eviscerate the Republican-supporting coal industry as a political power.
