In These Times magazine has a great article today about a stealth effort at EPA to slow down needed regulation of factory farm pollution and shield the industry from accountability. Collaborating with the National Pork Producers Council and the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, EPA is working up a voluntary air monitoring program, in which the agency begs for air quality data by trading away the industry's accountability under the Clean Air Act, Superfund, and environmental right-to-know laws. In These Times quotes a former EPA staff attorney as objecting that EPA already has the authority it needs to collect this information: "It doesn't need industry's permission. It doesn't need to sign up for this voluntary agreement. They're privatizing a rulemaking process." Check out the article: Christopher D. Cook, "Environmental Hogwash: The EPA Works With Factory Farms to Delay Regulation of 'Extremely Hazardous Substances,'" In These Times, Oct. 6, 2004.