The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The television ad from Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, running statewide on the FOX News Channel, erroneously claims the EPA wants to regulate methane from cattle and dust from farming activities.
“If you have to choose between Iowa farmers and Washington regulators, we will defer to the opinions of the Iowa farmers,” said Steve Grubbs, who’s also a former state representative and Republican Party of Iowa chairman.
David Bryan, a spokesman for the EPA, said Monday “there’s no truth to that at all” when asked about the methane regulations. He also noted EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson wrote a letter to members of Congress dispelling the farm dust regulation rumors.
But Grubbs — and apparently Cain’s campaign — aren’t convinced by the EPA’s statements. Grubbs stopped short of saying the EPA is lying, instead saying it’s responding to existing regulations and not potential future regulations.
“This is a concern that farmers have about the future and farmers have been through this before where they’ve been told one thing by the EPA and had negative outcomes,” he said.
Grubbs hopes methane from cows and farm dust will continue to be unregulated. But he said Iowa farmers don’t believe that’s the case, and he doesn’t think it’s misleading to suggest to voters those regulations are coming.
“I don’t think it’s misleading,” Grubbs said. “If farmers believe that this is the near future for them, then why shouldn’t we believe them? Who knows agricultural regulation better, the EPA or the farmer? We believe the farmer does. It just depends on who you trust as your source.”
