WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman Frank Lucas said today that the Environmental Protection Agency should be "ashamed" for its lack of scientific rationale for its proposed Clean Air rules.

In a hearing before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Forestry, Resource Conservation, and Research, Lucas said "all of us on this committee should be concerned about the EPA's proposed Ozone and Particulate Matter standards."

"I have found no constituency for it and am quite sure that it will have an adverse impact on the agricultural producers of this nation," he continued.

"The more we hear about these regulations, the less I like them" Lucas added. AI believe the EPA's proposal is the single largest set of environmental regulations ever promulgated.

"Every study of the proposal seems to reveal that the folks at the EPA should be ashamed of themselves for not utilizing sound science in promulgating this regulation, Lucas said.

"It is imperative that these regulations be thoughtfully reviewed by both the public and private sectors. We need to know what impact these regulations will have on our rural economies," Lucas concluded.

Lucas further noted a statement made in a House Commerce Subcommittee meeting last week which should give pause to all farmers in western Oklahoma and across the nation.

At the hearing of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Rep.Greg Ganske of Iowa asked Dr. Roger McClellen if plowing of farmland on a windy day could come under EPA regulation.

AI represent a rural district with a lot of farming and those farmers are out there plowing and sometimes it=s windy,@ Ganske said. AMy understanding...(is) that at least some of that stuff that goes up into the air would be regulated. Is that correct?@

AYour analysis is absolutely correct,@ said McClellen, president of the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology and Chairman of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee from 1988-92. McClellen cited a proposal to include wheatlands in eastern Washington in such regulations to Aprotect the public health of citizens of Spokane, Washington.@

Lucas says such a possibility is Ascary and outrageous.@

The problem, Lucas said, is that no one knows how much fine particulates are increased by discing or harrowing ground prior to planting.

ABut,@ he said, Aif particulates in air samples are higher in portions of the Sixth District -- or anywhere in Oklahoma for that matter -- than standards set in the Clean Air Act, the EPA could regulate such farming practices.

AAnd, that=s scary and outrageous,@ he added. AThis bodes particularly ill for farmers in Canadian and rural Oklahoma counties, closer to the metropolitan areas.@

Lucas said he and other farm-state representatives will watch these developments closely, and Ahold EPA=s feet to the fire.

AThey (EPA) say they want to keep dust out of the air we breathe, but, like the neighborhood bully, they keep kicking dust in the faces of farmers across the nation.@