EPA Regulation Threatens Fourth District Families

Press Release

Former Arkansas House Majority Leader and Fourth District Congressional Candidate Bruce Westerman (R-Hot Springs) today issued the following statement regarding a recent agreement between the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which stops making available excess military vehicles to rural fire departments as firefighting equipment due to the vehicles not meeting emission standards:

"It is ridiculous that President Obama's EPA is more concerned about what comes out of the tailpipe of a firefighting vehicle than actually protecting the lives and property of not only Arkansans living in and around forested areas, but the local rural firefighters that need this equipment. The greenhouse gas emissions from a rural fire engine are minuscule compared to the gases released in a wildfire. Out-of-touch EPA mandates like this do nothing to protect the environment; they just pile more costs and burdens on us.

"From my perspective as an engineer, forester, policy maker, citizen, and property owner in Arkansas's mostly rural Fourth District, Obama's EPA has got this one horribly wrong."

Through two long-standing federal excess property programs, the Federal Excess Personal Property (FEPP) and Firefighter Property program (FPP), rural fire departments have been assisted by receiving no-cost military trucks that are then re-manufactured into wildland engines and water tenders. FEPP and FPP have provided, on average, more than $150 million worth of decommissioned DoD equipment annually between 2008 and 2012. Most equipment went to rural volunteer fire departments, which typically lack the financial resources to purchase commercial trucks, and yet provide 80 percent of the initial attack on wildland fires in the U.S.

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