Environmental organizations attack large-scale livestock farmers

Posted on March 28, 2017 by matt ohern
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A petition to substantially increase regulation of CAFOs was filed on March 9, 2017, with EPA. Environmental groups claimed in the petition that “Decades after passage of the CWA, CAFOs remain a significant – and substantially unregulated – source of water pollution throughout the United States.” Environmental groups also declare “EPA has significant authority to revise its approach and strengthen its oversight of industrial livestock pollution, and Petitioners believe that EPA has an obligation pursuant to its CWA duties to do so without further delay.”
Food and Water Watch, Arkansas Rights Koalition, Association of Irritated Residents, Des Moines Water Works, Dallas County Farmers and Neighbors of Iowa, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Moms Across America Eastern Shore Chapter of Maryland, and numerous other environmental groups filed a 58-page petition condemning all CAFOs as pollution point sources and for allowing the spreading of manure on fields and runoff into waters of the United States.
Interesting charges
The petition makes a number of interesting charges. It claims EPA’s current CAFO regulations are insufficiently strong, do not require water quality monitoring, do not prohibit practices which harm water quality, ignores pollutants discharged into water, and places manure waste management into the hands of “weak” state agencies.
The petitioners say they represent millions of citizens across the United States including those adversely impacted by CAFO water pollution.
The Petition asserts that CAFO waste disposal practices have created harmful water pollution and claim “Twenty-nine states have specifically identified Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) as contributing to their water quality impairments, and states with high concentrations of CAFOs experience on average 20 to 30 serious water quality problems per year as a result of manure management problems.”
The sources of all this pollution are production areas, land application fields, spills, runoff and intentional discharges which come from manure lagoons, pits, stockpiles, ventilation fans, and mortality management areas.
The environmentalists’ petition claims manure from CAFOs “…pose substantial threats to human health and the environment.” The threats from manure waste include “…nitrogen, phosphorus, pathogens, salts, heavy metals, trace elements, antibiotics, and hormones.” In fact the environmental groups claim that manure waste from CAFOs “…can cause symptoms such as diarrhea and an increase risk for severe illness or death.”
A parade of horrors
The parade of horrors goes on. It claims “EPA has previously found that heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese, and nickel,…are commonly found in CAFO manure, litter, and processed waste water.” To make matters worse, CAFO manure waste is alleged to contain large quantities of hormones. The petition cites one study which estimates “…that approximately 722,852 pounds of naturally-produced estrogens, androgens, and progestogens were excreted by cattle, swine, and poultry in 2000; accounting for all synthetic hormones in manure, the use of which does not have to be reported, would drive this figure even higher.”
The petition claims these hormones and their metabolites are found in streams and creeks and waters downstream from cattle feedlots. Environmental groups cite EPA claiming “…40% of CAFOs are currently regulated under the NPDES program…” The environmentalists also claim “EPA [is]…unwilling to stand up to CAFO industry pressure…”. Several pages are devoted to criticizing EPA for failing to represent America’s farmers and their CAFOs. (Strange that the petition never mentions Congress and the specific exemptions given to agriculture’s stormwater runoff.)
I will close with the specific requests made to EPA by the 34 environmental groups:

  1. EPA should establish an evidentiary presumption that certain CAFOs discharge and are either subject to NPDES permitting or must rebut the presumption by demonstrating they do not discharge;
  2. EPA should revise its interpretation of agricultural stormwater exemption such that no discharges resulting from CAFO activities are exempt as non-point source pollution’
  3. EPA must ensure that integrators who meet the CWA definition of owner or operator are co-permitted with contract producers, as the statue has always required;
  4. EPA should revise certain definitions in the CAFO regulations;
  5. EPA should revise the requirements applicable to all CAFOs, including by requiring water quality monitoring in CAFO NPDES permits to ensure compliance with the CWA and permit terms; and
  6. EPA should revise the CAFO ELGs to address additional CAFO pollutants of concern, prohibit practices known to harm water quality, and otherwise strengthen existing requirements.

EPA needs to team up with USDA to answer the charges made in this petition. With a new Secretary for USDA in Governor Perdue, I suspect he is tough and knowledgeable enough to take on the environmentalists’ charges and discredit them.
(This article first appeared in Farm Futures on March 14, 2017)
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Rights and Wrongs of Interstate Tolling

Posted on March 28, 2017 by matt ohern
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Rights and Wrongs of Interstate Tolling
The prospect of a $1 trillion federal infrastructure program has led to numerous hands out for pieces of the action. Some officials are presenting the mismanagement of their highway systems (“years of under-investment” in South Carolina; “crumbling roads” due to underfunding in Mississippi) as a reason why someone else should pay to upgrade their highways.
In sharp contrast, states with competent toll agencies—such as Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Texas—have well-funded programs to extend and widen critically important Interstate highways and bridges. Not surprisingly, then, a growing number of governors and legislatures are looking anew at toll financing.
Last month Fitch Ratings issued a thoughtful report, “U.S. Interstate Tolling Merited but Warrants Caution.” Tolls are a quintessential user fee, assuming the proceeds are used to benefit those who pay them, notes Fitch. But its report acknowledges that “the current tolling framework across the U.S. seems to have no sustainable, policy-based rationale,” with cross-subsidies and little transparency to the citizen. And on nearly all toll roads, customers must pay tolls in addition to fuel taxes, leading to concerns about “double taxation.”
From my own reading and research, here are some of the problems with 20th-century tolling that will need to be addressed in order to build public and political support for something as bold as toll-financing the replacement of 20th-century Interstates with their 21st-century successors:

  • Toll roads as cash cows: The most blatant example is Pennsylvania’s infamous 2007 Act 44, which forces the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority to diveret $450 million per year to the state DOT for roads and transit statewide, leading to large annual toll rate increases that are essentially a tax solely on Turnpike customers.
  • Temporary tolls: This is the 20th-century idea was that tolls are a necessary evil, to be removed as soon as the initial bonds are paid off. (This is about to happen in West Virginia.) That implies that a toll road does not need regular maintenance, future lane additions, and eventual reconstruction. With fuel tax revenue on a long downhill slide toward extinction, per-mile tolls should be part of the permanent replacement of per-gallon fuel taxes.
  • Sticking outsiders with paying tolls: “Border tolling” keeps cropping up in states considering Interstate tolling—e.g., last-decade proposals in Virginia and current discussions in Connecticut and elsewhere. Any such tolls would assuredly be shot down in federal court as discriminatory on interstate commerce grounds.

Fitch’s valuable report reminds us that any plan that broadens the use of tolling “will need to be perceived as fair.” And that means any new framework must demonstrate value for money to those asked to pay for improved replacement highways and bridges. Among other things, that means the “double taxation” concern must be addressed. Fitch notes that targeted credits and [fuel tax] rebates to offset inequities could be ways to address the perception of double taxation. In addition, “Tolling only at state lines will have adverse implications for travel and the perception of fairness.”
As I read news reports on current discussions of tolling involving governors and legislators, I’m worried by a lot of what I see. All too many public officials seem to be envisioning a program that would put tolls on Interstates in order to use them as cash cows for the entire state DOT’s under-funded budget. This idea has particularly colored many of the discussions in Connecticut and also seems to be West Virginia Gov. Justice’s rationale for keeping tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike for a few more years after the bonds are paid off—but only charging them at state borders!
A growing number of governors and legislators are eyeing the federal pilot program that permits three states to each toll-finance the replacement of a single aging Interstate highway. Discussions or studies that would lead to such an application are under way in Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and even Wyoming. As of now, there appear to be only two vacant slots in the program (assuming Missouri’s request for a six-month extension of its slot is granted by FHWA).
From what I read and hear in these states, few of their officials seem to understand that the pilot program requires all the toll revenue generated by the rebuilt Interstate to be used for the capital and operating costs of the Interstate in question, not spread around statewide. In addition to reading the language Congress agreed to (it’s the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program), they should read Fitch’s thoughtful report. It offers wise counsel not just for Pilot Program applicants but also for longer-term use of toll financing for 21st century Interstates.
(This article first appeared in Surface Transportation News on March, 2017)
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What the Obama Giveth, the Trump Taketh Away

Posted on March 15, 2017 by matt ohern
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The federal budget sequestration may have kept a lid on escalating federal budget deficits, a good thing, but it was a disaster for Virginia’s economy. The cap on federal spending hammered a Northern Virginia economy built largely around the Pentagon. The ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency signaled a possible return to the region’s glory days as the new president promised to increase defense spending by $50 billion.
But the president has created massive uncertainty with a vow to slash discretionary spending in civilian programs and bureaucracies. The Washington Post is all in a dither:

The cuts Trump plans to propose this week are also expected to lead to layoffs among federal workers, changes that would be felt sharply in the Washington area. According to an economic analysis by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, the reductions outlined so far by Trump’s advisers would reduce employment in the region by 1.8 percent and personal income by 3.5 percent, and lower home prices by 1.9 percent. …

Trump’s emphasis on defense spending might provide a buffer for Northern Virginia, although, as noted previously on this blog, there are some within his administration who believe that the Pentagon civilian bureaucracy needs to be whacked down to size in order to free more resources for fighting forces. Under a serious effort to rebuild the U.S. Navy, Hampton Roads’ military bases and shipbuilders could be big beneficiaries.
We can’t say anything with certainty until Trump releases the details of his plans later this week. But at this moment in time, it looks like the new budgetary policies could be a mild plus for Virginia with boosts in defense spending offsetting cuts in other areas. Conversely, Maryland and Washington, D.C., with their large non-military exposure, could be in for a world of hurt
Adding to Washington’s woes…. The metro area’s job performance in 2016 has been revised downward. Reports the Washington Business Journal: “The D.C. region added 55,600 jobs in 2016, according to final data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — about 16,800 fewer than the agency had initially counted.”

“We are talking slashing and burning several different agencies on the discretionary, non-defense side. That could have a pretty chilling effect for the local economy,” said Clifford Rossi, a professor of the practice at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland-College Park.
Rossi agreed that the revised job growth numbers reveal an economy that was weaker than it originally appeared, and that the federal spending cuts proposed by Trump could have a compound effect on the regional economy.

Bacon’s bottom line: Actually, the loss of 1.8% employment and 3.5% income is no worse than what dozens of other metros experienced in the last recession. But have compassion! Washington has never been through anything like this before.
(This article first appeared in Bacon’s Rebellion on March 14th, 2017)
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Increased military spending could benefit Virginia's economy

Posted on March 15, 2017 by matt ohern
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Virginia stands to receive more benefit than any other state in the country under the president’s plan to increase military spending.
In President Trump’s address to Congress last week, his plan “calls for one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.”
Defense spending contributes to the Virginia economy in multi-facet ways.
The Department of Defense operates in Virginia as well as military bases such as Quantico, Fort A.P. Hill, Norfolk Naval Base and Fort Lee. Those operations and bases create thousands of military and civilian jobs in the state.
Virginia’s firms also benefit from defense spending through contracts. Some of the nation’s largest defense contractors, such as Huntington Ingalls Industries, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, are based in the state.
In fact, Virginia ranked first in the nation in defense spending with $53 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2015, according to the defense department’s spending by state report. That’s 13 percent of all the defense spending in the nation.
California ranked second with $49.3 billion during the same time period, or 12.1 percent of the defense spending in the nation.
If proportions hold, Virginia and California stand to receive a quarter of the benefit of the increase in spending.
But the increased spending will have a bigger impact on the Virginia economy given its relative size.
Defense spending in Virginia represented 11.2 percent of the total gross regional product of $473.2 billion during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2015.
That ranks Virginia No. 1 in the nation for its dependence on defense.
By comparison, only 2.1 percent of California’s gross regional product came from defense during the same time period. That ranked California the 24th most dependent state on defense spending.
The buildup in defense spending helped fuel Virginia’s growth in the first decade of this century.
The state’s dependence on defense contributed to the relatively smaller decline in employment during the Great Recession when compared to the nation.
Going further back in history to the Reagan-era Cold War build up in defense, the state saw similar benefits largely because of spending in Northern Virginia.
Northern Virginia was once considered recession proof — that was until the Cold War draw bore down on the region.
The draw down from the war in Afghanistan and sequestration related to the Budget Control Act of 2011 also dampened economic activity in Virginia.
Employment growth in the state slowed from a year-over-year pace of 1.4 percent in December 2012 to a contraction of 0.2 percent in February 2014. During the same time, national employment growth continued to recover from the Great Recession and hovered around 2 percent on a year-over-year basis.
The year-over-year pace of employment growth has picked back up to 1.3 percent in Virginia based on the latest data for December 2016.
However, cutbacks in defense spending contributed to a slower-growing state economy that lead to budget shortfalls in Virginia and calls for diversifying the economy.
With the prospect of an acceleration in defense spending, Virginia is poised to benefit more than other states.
However, the state should take this opportunity and continue its diversification effort to achieve sustained long-term growth, with an understanding that defense spending inevitably runs cycles as well.
(This column first ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch on March 6, 2017)
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‘A Day Without a Woman’ Won’t Help Alexandria Public-School Students

Posted on March 15, 2017 by matt ohern
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(Editor’s note: this column ran on the “Day Without a Woman” protest and Alexandria’s schools closed for the day)
Public schools in Alexandria, Virginia, will be closed Wednesday because roughly 300 staff sought to take the day off for the “Day Without a Woman” protest. The school system did not have enough male staff to make up for the absences, so schools will be closed for what is being called, in perfect irony, a “teacher work day.”
“A Day Without a Woman” aims to “highlight the economic power and significance that women have in the U.S. and global economies, while calling attention to the economic injustices women and gender-nonconforming people continue to face.” Organizers have already succeeded in blowing up the plans of working parents in Alexandria, who now have two days’ notice to find all-day child care or take an involuntary day off from work.
Because of its location near the nation’s capital, its charming historic Old Town, and its median family income of $109,228 (the highest of any city in Virginia), outsiders might think that Alexandria boasts a first-rate public-school system. It doesn’t. The quality of the public schools within the city varies greatly, and system as a whole lags behind those in neighboring Arlington and Fairfax Counties.
Pick your measuring stick: U.S. News & World Report, Zillow, GreatSchools.org, Trulia, parental chat boards, the Washington Post ranking of local high schools. Alexandria performs poorly by any metric. SchoolDigger ranks the district 96th out of 130 districts in the state. This isn’t to say Alexandria schools are bad, exactly, but some of them are particularly subpar for an area with such relative wealth. Jefferson-Houston, which teaches students from pre-K to eighth grade, lost its accreditation in 2012. The school, which is 67 percent black, narrowly avoided being taken over by the state in a subsequent court battle.
A little more than 15,000 students attend 16 public schools in Alexandria, and the district spends $16,999 per student, according to the latest statistics. Class sizes are small, averaging 18 students in elementary school, 20 in middle school, and 22 in high school.
Despite those advantages, students in Alexandria’s public schools underperform the statewide average in subject after subject. In the 2015–16 school year, 80 percent of Virginia students passed English proficiency exams; 73 percent of students in Alexandria did. In math, 80 percent statewide passed; 68 percent of Alexandria students did. Statewide, 77 percent of students passed a test of writing proficiency; 69 percent of Alexandria students did. In history, 86 percent of students passed statewide; 77 percent of Alexandria students did. In science, 83 percent of students statewide passed; 69 percent of Alexandria students did.
As a whole, Alexandria residents have considerable wealth, but the wealthiest parents don’t send their children to public school, at least in part because the city has some of the region’s best private schools. The students who remain in the public-school system, particularly at the high-school level, disproportionately represent the city’s poorer residents. In fact, more than half of the city’s public-school students qualify for free or reduced-price meals at school.
The problems in Alexandria’s public schools — disappointing test scores, insufficient preparation for the challenges of college and work — are real, tangible, thorny, and intractable. They existed before Donald Trump took office, and some variation of them will likely exist after he’s gone. Abstract problems such as “sexism” and “the economic injustices facing women and gender-nonconforming people” are not nearly as easy to define as the ills that plague Alexandria schools and, indeed, schools around the country. They’re also unlikely to be solved by “A Day Without a Woman.”
(Copyright 2017 National Review. Used with Permission — article here.)  
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