Blog: EPA Regulations a Burden on Small Businesses

Statement

Dear Friend,

With twenty years experience as a small business owner, I understand how burdensome federal regulations hamstring small businesses and prevent economic growth. I was troubled to learn that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering new, more stringent, standards for regulating Coarse Particulate Matter, or, as we like to call it in Georgia, "dust."

The mere thought that an agency would entertain the idea to regulate dust would be laughable, if it were not true. I do not believe that anyone from the EPA has ever stepped foot in a Georgia peanut field during harvest season. If they had, then they would know that dust cannot be regulated because it occurs as naturally as the rain that falls on our crops.

The type of regulations that the EPA is considering are utterly ridiculous and will have devastating effects on our economy and the American business owner's ability to create jobs. Congress must stand up to the EPA and exercise oversight responsibility over such regulations that are so damaging to job creation. I look forward to being a leader in that effort. Americans are demanding common-sense, responsible solutions that encourage innovation and job creation; frankly, the EPA is just not listening.

Last week, 102 of my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives and I sent a letter to the EPA's administrator Lisa Jackson (attached) concerning the EPA's over burdensome dust regulations. This is just the first of our efforts to address this issue. The American farmer doesn't deserve to become "collateral damage" in the EPA's efforts to control dust. I look forward to holding the EPA accountable on this and other out of control regulatory actions.

Sincerely,

Austin Scott

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