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November 3, 2026
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Bye-bye, NAEMS.
On October 30th, the Trump Administration announced it was abandoning EPA's 20-year-old effort to establish emissions-estimating methodologies for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) pursuant to the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS).
In response to threatened activist lawsuits asserting violations of the federal Clean Air Act and other federal laws, NAEMS was created, supported by a Consent Agreement entered into between EPA and some 2,600 livestock operations across the country. This served as an immediate pressure-release valve, and I had the honor of participating in the development of the agreement. Thus began a two-decade sojourn of study design, data collection, analysis and comments concerning the variety of livestock operations, manure-handling systems, climatic settings and housing, and the "science" behind the development of emissions-estimating methodologies.
EPA's announcement indicated that the data was "too old and too limited" to support the development of reliable estimations. Additionally, EPA said there have been too many industry advancements to apply the study to today's modern operations. The effort is at an end. Whether this will reopen a front for anti-CAFO activists to reassert their prior claims remains to be seen. But as for now, NAEMS is dead.
"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."
www.epa.gov/...
