Trump Pledges to Revise Equipment Emissions Guidelines

President Trump says he wants to extend new, less restrictive emissions standards to include farm machinery.

During the White House roundtable event where he announced farmer assistance payments, Trump criticized the current emissions standards. “It’s got so much equipment for the environmental that doesn’t do anything except it makes the equipment much more expensive and much more complicated to work, and it’s not as good as the old days, and we’re going to take a lot of that nonsense off the equipment.”

Trump says the relaxed emissions rules that will be drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency will come with a new requirement. “They’re going to have to reduce their prices because farming equipment has gotten too expensive, and a lot of the reason is because they put these environmental excesses on the equipment.”

Trump did not announce a timeline for the new emissions guidelines.

Wisconsin farmer and State Representative Travis Tranel sent President Trump and Ag Secretary Brook Rollins a letter last week asking the administration to extend the same emission standards reduction proposed for cars and truck to include ag equipment. 

EDITOR’S TAKE:

The President is not wrong when he states that current emission standards for ag equipment has increased prices tremendously with little or no real gain to the environment. Some will obviously resist this move to relax the standards, but I can attest from firsthand involvement and knowledge that the current standards are too restrictive and costly. Plus, if he is going to relax them for autos and trucks, why not include ag and construction equipment.

This move will require some retraining of sales, parts and service personnel at your dealership. Also, such changes to ag equipment and the trucks they use should help bring prices under control and improve the farmer's/rancher’s bottom line.