Emergency planning required of farmers and ranchers for petroleum spills, mandated by EPA's Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) rulemaking, will be delayed for 18 months for farmers only, EPA announced this week. The new deadline - May 10, 2013 - was chosen after EPA studied the impact of this past year's floods and fires across the country, with the agency deciding farmers and ranchers need more time to come into compliance with new spill rules. The rule applies to any entity storing 1,320 gallons of fuel above ground or 42,000 gallons in underground storage. Other entities will need to have plans in place by November.

The Joint Special Deficit Reduction Committee, which has received over 100,000 recommendations on how to cut the federal budget by $1.5 trillion over 10 years, this week heard from 38 members of the House demanding an end to federal tax breaks for oil and gas companies. The group said Washington can no longer "afford to give away billions of dollars every year to corporations earning billions of dollars in profits;" this move would save $122 billion over 10 years. These cuts, the House members said, will reduce oil production by less than one half of one percent, and will increase the cost of exploration by less than 2%. The industry can absorb these costs without eliminating jobs or increasing fuel prices at the pump, the House members said.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson vowed yet again her agency has no intention of modifying current air particulate rules to regulate on-farm dust. Jackson said she wants to "finally put an end to the myth that the agency is planning to tighten up this regulation." EPA is required to reevaluate every five years its so-called PM10 rules, and during its most recent reviews comments from the agency led farm and ranch groups to believe the agency was going to propose making air particulate controls so tight as to "regulate the dust on a farm road." Jackson, in a letter to Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) this week, said her decision was based on the advice of EPA scientists and the Clean Air Science Advisory Council. She also reminded lawmakers that even if EPA did tighten the air standard, it would be left to the states to determine which industries were the biggest violators. Rep. Kristi Noem (R, SD) introduced legislation to stop any rulemaking, and while Senate critics, including former secretary of agriculture Sen. Mike Johanns (R, NE), appear to have been mollified by Jackson's formal announcement, Noem said this week she's concerned because EPA retains authority to tighten the requirement in the future, and this concern has been supported by a number of national farm and ranch groups. Noem's bill will be the subject of a hearing October 25 in the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

Ten bills aimed at changing the way FDA operates were introduced late last week by House Republicans - many of whom are members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee - setting the stage for Congress' oversight of upcoming user fee legislation for both human and animal drugs. The bills also signaling other changes as to how FDA operates are likely to be brought forward by regulated industry, even as the agency struggles with implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) enacted last year. The bills are aimed at changing the agency's mission to include support for innovation; changing FDA advisory committee conflict-of-interest operations; harmonization of international regulatory bodies; third party review of medical devices; changing the way FDA oversees laboratory-developed testing, and streamlining the medical device review process. And while similar sentiments have been voiced in the Senate, legislation to the extent seen in the House has not emerged in that chamber. Some also see the flood of FDA "reform" bills as perhaps setting the stage for the broader issue of consolidating FDA and USDA food safety authority into a single federal food agency.

Even as USDA announced it has approved more than $27 million in loans and grants to more than 500 rural businesses and producers to put ethanol "flex fuel" pumps into their operations, a Senator took to the floor to try and block any further federal spending on ethanol infrastructure. The grants and loan guarantees are part of USDA's Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, which provides funds for farmers, ranchers and rural businesses to purchase and install green energy systems and to make efficiency improvements. This most current round of grants and loans funds 54 flex fuel pump projects that will lead to 200 more pumps, part of the Administration's goal of 10,000 new flex fuel pumps over the next five years. But during this week's Senate floor debate on HR 2112, the agriculture appropriations bill - which cuts REAP funding nearly in half from last year - Sen. John McCain (R, AZ) rose to oppose the infrastructure spending, threatening an amendment to eliminate the program completely. The Renewable Fuels Assn. (RFA) said the amendment was a jobs creation move for oil producing countries, and the amendment was strongly opposed by the National Farmers Union (NFU). McCain withdrew the amendment after attacking the program.