PEORIA, Ill. — Ag business operators in the region are being urged to take action and cry foul on a package of bills that will ramp up emissions reporting requirements for many Illinois farmers, if passed.
“It’s going to cause our folks to jump through a lot of hoops that they should not have to jump through in order to account for any emissions that might be happening on their farmstead as they sell their commodities to end uers,” said Illinois Farm Bureau Executive Director of Governmental Affairs and Commodities, Mark Gebhardt.
He spoke on the subject during the RFD Radio Network’s weekly issues recap.
Gebhardt said the Farm Bureau is urging Illinois farmers, “to ask our Illinois delegation to either co-sponsor and/or support the bills that basically would protect farmers from this proposed SEC rule, essentially exempting those farmers,” Gebhardt added.
He says roughly 200 more official petitions would go a long way toward having Illinois farmers’ voices heard in the halls of Congress.
All of this is related to legislative debate on energy surrounding a much larger budget crunch facing U.S. lawmakers this week.
They’ll be on the clock, pushing to pass legislation to avert another government shutdown before Friday.
Gebhardt says he fully expects there will be another short term stop gap spending measure approved, but that Illinois farmers had best get their word in or miss the opportunity.
He indicated the Illinois Farm Bureau would soon launch a more concerted public relations effort as the debate in the D.C. continues this week and as more media attention is drawn to the various issues impacting any continuing resolution to fund the government.
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