The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published the final rule that establishes the volume requirements for calendar years 2014, 2015, and 2016 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Previous discussions about EPA’s arguments for use of the general waiver authority in the RFS statute reviewed a leaked version of the proposed rule and the proposed […]
Author Archive | Jonathan Coppess
Holiday Spirits: Notes from the Bourbon Trail
Good fortune recently provided me a brief, pre-holiday detour on Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail with my dad and brothers. The amber of the value-added agricultural products and the informative tours included a few interesting bits of farm policy and history – starting with the fact that our visit (unintentionally) coincided with the 82nd anniversary of the […]
Thinking about the Des Moines Water Works Lawsuit and the History of Drainage
In March 2015, Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) filed a lawsuit against three Iowa drainage districts because of nitrate problems in Des Moines drinking water supplies. It alleges the nitrates have leached out of farm fields, through drainage district tiles, and ended up in the city’s drinking water supply. In July, the water utility reported […]
Reviewing USDA’s Revised Conservation Compliance Regulation
On Friday, April 24, 2015, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) published its regulation for attaching conservation compliance to the portion of premium covered by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), known as premium subsidy. Section 2611 of the 2014 Farm Bill (Agricultural Act of 2014) made Highly Erodible Land (HEL) and Wetlands conservation compliance provisions […]
Reviewing the USDA Proposal to Limit Farm Program Payment Eligibility
On March 24, 2015, USDA announced a proposed rule that further restricts farm program payments to those persons who are actively engaged in farming. USDA’s proposed rule is the result of the 2014 Farm Bill; it seeks to limit the number of individuals who previously qualified for farm program payments based solely on providing management […]
Environmental Regulation of Agriculture: The Des Moines Water Works Issue
On Jan. 9, the Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) sent a letter to three drainage districts in Iowa providing 60 days’ notice that it intends to sue over nitrates in the water bodies that make up much of the drinking water supply for Des Moines. The threat of a lawsuit adds a new dimension to […]
Exploring the Environmental Regulation of Agriculture: Accounting for Weather
A previous article opened a discussion on the general challenges with regulating agriculture; this article continues that discussion along with the focus on water quality issues and nutrient losses. Both the farmer and the regulator stand in a similar position: the farmer prefers not to lose nutrients from the fields where they are intended to […]
Evaluating Use of Conservation Policies for Pollinators
One of the suspected culprits in pollinator decline is the loss of the amount and diversity of forage habitat. This decline not only affects managed honey bees, but includes other pollinators, such as butterflies and moths. Wild bumblebees, for example, are crucial for pollinating some plants and who not only face declines in habitat but […]
A Brief History of Farm Conservation Policy
Across the divide from the challenging realities of regulating nonpoint source pollution and agriculture reside the natural resource conservation policies for farmers contained in the omnibus legislation commonly known as the farm bill. The suite of conservation programs tend to avoid the sharp-edged debate surrounding environmental regulation, as well as the harsh criticism aimed at […]
Exploring Environmental Regulation of Agriculture
Recently the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grabbed attention when it attempted to clarify the Clean Water Act by defining the term “waters of the United States.” Many in agriculture have raised concerns about the definition and how it would impact farming and property owners, adding a new chapter to the long-running debate regarding environmental […]