South Dakota Farmers Union to EPA: Stop Blowing Smoke and Enforce the Law

Today, South Dakota Farmer Union President Doug Sombke called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop hiding the true source and quantities of some of most harmful emissions of gasoline by updating their models and enforcing the law.

 In a letter to Christopher Grundler, Director of EPAs Office of Transportation and Air Quality, Sombke blasted the agency for its unwillingness to take the lead in reducing secondary organic aerosols that comprise the majority of urban particulates (PM2.5) and are, by EPAs own admission, directly linked to gasoline.  

 His letter was prompted by a report in the Wall Street Journal that leaf blowers emit as much as cars in terms of PM 2.5 with the supporting data in the story derived from an EPA chart titled Blowing Smoke.

 “To suggest that leaf blowers are on par with 270 million cars is absurd,” said Sombke. “And that absurdity is drawn from outdated information and bad science.” 

 “Whether this is an error of omission or just a refusal to take action, EPA data ignores the fact that counting primary sources that lead to particulate formation is at best half the story,”  he added, “It is the secondary aerosols from gasoline and the benzene based hydrocarbons that are used for octane which is the real problem.”

 The letter called on Mr. Grundler to “come clean” and not mislead the public, media and policy makers by incorrectly claiming diesel fuel and vehicles are the problem rather than gasoline and its carcinogenic components.

 “Mr. Grundler, I think that you and your colleagues are the ones blowing smoke…do your duty to protect the health and welfare of the American people, especially the most vulnerable among us – our children,” Sombke said.