Trump EPA Brings Closure to 20-Year-Old Agreement, Ending Decades Long Uncertainty For Thousands of American Farms
Outdated study data cannot support reliable emissions methods; Agency will move to end 2005 Air Compliance Agreement
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will not develop emissions estimates as part of the 2005 Animal Feeding Operations Consent Agreement and Final Order (2005 Air Compliance Agreement). EPA’s enforcement office will work to end obligations under that agreement. Together, these actions bring closure to an agreement that has left thousands of American farmers without clear answers for more than two decades.
Today's actions do not change EPA's implementation of the Clean Air Act or its commitment to providing clean air for all Americans, including in rural communities around farms. However, it affirms that farmers will not need to worry about burdensome regulations being put in place.
In 2005, following a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report which called for better ways to estimate air emissions from Animal Feedings Operations (AFOs), livestock and poultry farms that raise animals in confinement, EPA offered these farms the chance to sign a voluntary agreement and take part in the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS). While the study's goal was to develop methodologies farms could use to estimate their emissions, many stakeholders have raised concerns that the practicality of the study would have been more harmful than beneficial to America's farmers by forcing burdensome regulatory requirements, and that red tape would have hindered critical food production and impacted rural economies with overhead costs.
In the over two decades since, many participating farms have changed hands, closed, or modernized their barns and manure systems. Farmers raising hogs, broiler chickens, egg-laying hens, and dairy cows have waited that entire time without knowing what new permitting or reporting obligations might follow once the methods were finalized.
After evaluating the NAEMS data collected from 2005-2007, EPA concluded that the data are too old and too limited to support reliable methods. The data reflect barn designs, herd sizes, and manure practices that no longer represent how many farms operate today. As a result, EPA will not finalize the methodologies under the 2005 Air Compliance Agreement.
"Good science requires good data, and these data are too old and too limited to support methods that farms could rely on," said EPA Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) Abigale Tardif. "We would rather tell farmers that plainly than issue numbers we cannot stand behind. The Trump EPA is committed to providing the public with accurate, scientifically credible information, and to listening to the concerns of America's farmers."
“Farmers have been living for two decades with the threat that, at any moment, the EPA could come out with a new emissions framework that treats farms like major industrial facilities and requires farmers to scramble to seek onerous permits. With this action, the Trump EPA has advanced the rule of law by resolving the long-obsolete obligations under the 2005 Air Compliance Agreement. The Trump EPA continues to provide our nation’s farmers with regulatory certainty and honor its commitment not to achieve regulation by enforcement,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), Jeffrey Hall.
“For years, America’s farmers have been under threat of an activist EPA’s implementing a burdensome and unnecessary framework, which would subject their operations to potentially massive fines and legal costs. Today, under the leadership of President Trump and EPA Administrator Zeldin, that uncertainty comes to an end,” said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Alexander Vaden. “I want to thank the EPA for hearing farmers’ concerns and reviewing the science and data showing that this framework is no longer applicable. We will continue to advocate for our farmers and ranchers as they feed, fuel, and clothe the world.”
EPA will work to notify the approximately 2,600 AFOs subject to the 2005 Air Compliance Agreement of this action pursuant to the Agreement, to the extent possible, and then terminate the Agreement. Since day one, the Trump EPA has worked to resolve outdated agreements that no longer serve their intended purpose. EPA will continue to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), land-grant universities, and producers on practical, science-based ways to understand and reduce air emissions from farms, and will continue to put farmers first in recognition of the vital role they play in feeding the nation.
For further information on NAEMS visit the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study.
Background
Approximately 2,600 AFOs, representing nearly 14,000 farms, joined the 2005 Air Compliance Agreement. Using NAEMS data on ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds, EPA developed draft emissions estimating methodologies for each participating sector. EPA's Science Advisory Board reviewed earlier drafts in 2013.
In November 2024, EPA released updated draft methodologies for public comment. After the comment period closed in August 2025, EPA identified key limitations with respect to the representativeness and age of data, as well as changes to standard operational practices and technologies that could not be resolved with the existing data.