EPA Goes on Road Show to Missouri to Spread Lies and Misinformation About its Farmland Takeover

The radical leftists running the Environmental Protection Agency are once again on the warpath, this time proposing rules that will place their countless legions of bureaucrats in control of puddles, ditches, ponds, and private farmland in general.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) chief is traveling to Missouri this week to promote among farmers the agency’s proposal to redefine its jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act... The agency has faced some of the harshest backlash to the rule from agricultural representatives, who say that farmers will either have to obtain permits or be outright banned from common farming practices like digging ditches or building fences.

EPA chief Gina McCarthy says anyone who opposes the rule is a liar.

...[she] told reporters that much of the opposition to the rule relies on myths.

“Unfortunately, I think there’s a growing list of misunderstandings that have been floating around,” she said. “And so part of the reason to go down to Missouri is to clarify those issues and to try to knock down some of the misunderstandings.”

McCarthy went on to say that most of the farmers' concerns are illegitimate. Because faceless bureaucrats in Washington know more about farming than farmers.

“While there are some legitimate concerns out there with the rule and many issues that we teed up ourselves in the rule to try to seek comment, we’re hearing some concerns that really are, to put frankly, they’re ludacris,” [sic] she said.

Yes, the EPA's rules are quite reasonable (yo, Timothy Cama, it's ludicrous, not the host of Pimp My Ride). Consider one of the examples offered by Wisconsin Ag Connection:

...[F]armers harvesting hay may be exempt from needing a CWA permit only if they follow NRCS Conservation Practice Standard No. 511: four pages of criteria covering timing of the harvest, moisture content of the hay, length of the cut hay, stubble height and much more.

Yes, any farmer who opposes the thousands of pages of regulatory overreach is simply being "ludacris".

Anyhoo, there is some pushback in the Senate, which I encourage you to support.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is trying to use a bill aimed at preserving federal lands for hunting and fishing as a vehicle to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempt to redefine its jurisdiction over the nation’s lakes and rivers...

“This legislation will stop the Environmental Protection Agency from taking over all private and state water in the United States,” Emily Schillinger, a spokeswoman for Barrasso, said in a statement, adding that the rule proposed in March would “significantly expand federal authority under the Clean Water Act.”

This is nothing less than an unconstitutional and totalitarian takeover of the farming industry.

As for the rationale behind it, I simply refer you to this.