Walden Outlines Concerns Over EPA

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) today met with Dennis McLerran, Region 10 Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and conveyed concerns about his agency’s actions from citizens around southern, central, and eastern Oregon.
In the meeting, Walden presented McLerran with a letter detailing actions by the EPA he has heard about in his 23 town hall meetings in Oregon’s Second District this year. Click here for a copy of the letter.

“This year I have traveled extensively around Oregon’s Second Congressional District and have held 23 public town hall meetings, including a town hall in each of the 20 counties that I represent,” Walden wrote. “In these town hall meetings, I have heard from countless Oregonians who are very concerned with the harmful red tape coming out of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A common theme I have heard is that there needs to be a much better balance between sustaining and growing our economy and creating jobs and protecting our environment. Too often, Oregonians feel that common sense is left out of the process.”

He then detailed a variety of these concerning issues, which include:

• Increased regulation of biomass (“Boiler MACT” rule).

• Red tape that could destroy community jobs at a cement plant in Baker County (“Cement MACT” rule).

• Additional burdensome agricultural pesticide regulations that will negatively impact Oregon’s farmers, ranchers and foresters.

• Release of personal information by the agency to outside interest groups that jeopardizes food security.

Walden concluded the letter by urging the EPA to take the concerns of Oregonians into account as the agency addresses these issues. He copied the Acting Administrator of the EPA to make sure the input reached the highest levels of the agency. Walden is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which conducts oversight of the EPA.