Farms may get EPA emissions break

WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may give large livestock farms and feedlots an exemption from emissions regulations.

A proposal published in the Federal Register in December would end the requirement that large chicken, hog and cattle operations report ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

Opponents of the plan, which would take effect in October, said the exemption would give an advantage to industrial farming. "Curiously, the EPA continues to ignore the opposition of state and local air pollution control agencies to the proposed exemption," Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said in a letter to the EPA this week.