False claims on Environmental Protection Agency regulations made in a Herman Cain ad aren’t worth responding to, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club says, claiming voters are smart enough to see through political rhetoric in the ad.

Herman Cain

But Steve Grubbs, Cain’s campaign chairman in Iowa, said Tuesday the campaign is more inclined to believe farmers when it comes to potential EPA regulations than the regulators themselves.

Maggie Kao, national press secretary for the Sierra Club, said she’s not surprised Cain’s campaign would run the ad.

“The fact of the matter is politicians buy ads all the time that are factually untrue,” Kao said. “I don’t think Herman Cain’s the first one to do that and I don’t think he’ll be the last. This is all to be expected from someone like Herman Cain who has complete disregard for the facts.”

Kao said most Americans would find it hard to believe that the EPA would worry about dust from farms when there are so many other concerns. She said that myth, along with the idea of regulating cow flatulence, “seems pretty far fetched to most people.”

“We’re not spending a lot of time pushing back on these myths simply because we think the American people are smarter than that and it’s a bit of an insult to even be talking about this non-issue,” Kao said.

Politicians have found it easy to put farmers against the EPA using scare tactics, Kao said. But polling shows most Americans are in favor of the work the agency does.

A nationwide survey from Public Policy Polling found support for EPA protections crosses party lines. The survey of 1,249 voters conducted in early October has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

The poll found 78 percent of people believe the EPA should protect air and water, including 62 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of independents. And 75 percent support the EPA overall, including 55 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of independents.

“It seems that there’s a very loud minority out there talking about the EPA in a negative way but that doesn’t jive with what we know from our own polling and experience talking to the American people,” Kao said.

The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.

The television ad from Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, running statewide on the FOX News Channel, erroneously claims the EPA wants to regulate methane from cattle and dust from farming activities.

“If you have to choose between Iowa farmers and Washington regulators, we will defer to the opinions of the Iowa farmers,” said Steve Grubbs, who’s also a former state representative and Republican Party of Iowa chairman.

David Bryan, a spokesman for the EPA, said Monday “there’s no truth to that at all” when asked about the methane regulations. He also noted EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson wrote a letter to members of Congress dispelling the farm dust regulation rumors.

But Grubbs — and apparently Cain’s campaign — aren’t convinced by the EPA’s statements. Grubbs stopped short of saying the EPA is lying, instead saying it’s responding to existing regulations and not potential future regulations.

“This is a concern that farmers have about the future and farmers have been through this before where they’ve been told one thing by the EPA and had negative outcomes,” he said.

Grubbs hopes methane from cows and farm dust will continue to be unregulated. But he said Iowa farmers don’t believe that’s the case, and he doesn’t think it’s misleading to suggest to voters those regulations are coming.

“I don’t think it’s misleading,” Grubbs said. “If farmers believe that this is the near future for them, then why shouldn’t we believe them? Who knows agricultural regulation better, the EPA or the farmer? We believe the farmer does. It just depends on who you trust as your source.”

A television ad from Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, running statewide on radio and the FOX News Channel, erroneously claims the Environmental Protection Agency wants to regulate methane from cattle and dust from farming activities.

The ad features a number of farmers, one of which says the EPA wants to regulate methane coming from cattle.

“For thousands of years, 60 million buffalo roamed these prairies in Iowa,” one farmer says. “Who regulated them?”

EPA regional spokesman David Bryan told The Iowa Independent Monday that “there’s no truth to that at all.”

“There are a number of regulations on greenhouse gas emissions and different types of ambient air quality standards, but trying to say we’re putting a tax on emissions from cows is just a little ridiculous,” Bryan said.

Another claim in the ad, that the EPA wants to regulate dust on farms, is also a myth. Bryan said every five years the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to evaluate air standards, but EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson made it clear in a note to Congress that there is no intention to regulate dust on farms.

“You can’t plow a field without dust, you can’t drive down a gravel road without dust,” a farmer says in Cain’s ad. “My dog makes dust.”

The EPA focuses on regulating course particulates, Bryan said, such as dust from construction, demolition and industrial sites.

“We center our monitoring of air mostly on urban areas where it affects the most people,” he said. “We’re going to leave the dust standards where they are.”

Dean Kleckner, former head of the Iowa Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau, endorses Cain in the ad, saying, “He reminds me of Ronald Reagan, and I knew Ronald Reagan.”

“Over-regulation is killing the American farmer,” Kleckner says. “I think Herman Cain is the answer. Running a farm is a business and Herman Cain is a proven CEO.”

Bryan said the EPA has worked to counter the false claims that the EPA wants to regulate methane and dust, but not everyone is getting the message.

“What further method do we have other than you folks to say we don’t intend on doing this?” Bryan said.

The Nebraska legislature, meeting in a special session to deal specifically with the Keystone XL pipeline that would cross their state, may be on the verge of passing a bill that could give the governor control over the route that pipeline would take.

On Wednesday, the Natural Resources Committee voted 7-1 to send a bill to the full legislature that would require all oil pipeline companies to have the routes of their pipelines certified by a state panel headed by the governor before starting construction.

LB4, introduced by Schuyler Sen. Chris Langemeier, would adopt the Oil Pipeline Route Certification Act. Under the bill, authority to issue a route certification for a proposed pipeline ultimately would rest with the governor. It would also establish a panel of experts and landowners to advise the governor, and require the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources to receive applications and hold public meetings regarding a proposed pipeline route. Finally, the proposal requires a route certificate to be obtained before eminent domain rights could be exercised by a pipeline carrier.

It is an open legal question whether the passage of such a bill would be legally viable, since the approval of the project is generally viewed as a federal question. Nonetheless, Nebraska lawmakers are set to begin their first round of debate on Nov. 14 at 1:30 p.m. Four amendments have been filed in advance of that debate.

Heineman came out against the pipeline route earlier this year, citing the importance of the Ogallala aquifer to regional residents and the agricultural industry.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department announced it needed time to further review the route proposed by TransCanada. A final decision is not expected until 2013.

In light of the federal news, Nebraska Sen. Langemeier told Kevin O’Hanlon of the Lincoln Journal Star that he would consider setting the bill aside.

“The bill is out to have a discussion, but at this point, maybe a discussion is not needed in a special session,” he said. “This might be able to be further discussed … in January,” when the legislature returns to regular session.

Ed Brayton contributed to this report.

The U.S. State Department announced Thursday that it wants TransCanada to consider a new route for its proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The decision by the feds is likely to delay the $7 billion project for a year or more, and may even kill the proposal.

“The department has determined it needs to undertake an in-depth assessment of potential alternative routes in Nebraska,” federal officials said in a release Thursday, adding that the review could be complete “as early as the first quarter of 2013,” which is several months after the 2012 general election.

The proposed pipeline would carry oil for a week, transporting it from Alberta, Canada through six U.S. states to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. The current proposed route cuts through the Sand Hills of Nebraska, which is the location of the Ogallala aquifer, a crucial source of drinking water and coveted resource by the agricultural community. In late August, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman came out in opposition to the proposed pipeline route, and there have been several heated public forums throughout the Great Plains region.

President Obama said in a statement that he supports the State Department’s decision for additional review.

“Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and that all the potential impacts are properly understood,” Obama said. “The final decision should be guided by the open, transparent process that is informed by the best available science and the voices of the American people.

“At the same time, my administration will build on the unprecedented progress we’ve made towards strengthening our nation’s energy security, from responsibly expanding domestic oil and gas production to nearly doubling the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks, to continued progress in the development of a clean energy economy.”

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speaking through his spokesman, expressed disappointment with the U.S. decision and pledged to continue to promote his country’s oilsands as an energy source.

The decision was also blasted by U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, who indicated the White House was playing politics.

“More than 20,000 new American jobs have just been sacrificed in the name of political expediency,” he said. “By punting on this project, the president has made clear that campaign politics are driving U.S. policy decisions — at the expense of American jobs. The current project has already been deemed environmentally sound, and calling for a new route is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to avoid upsetting the president’s political base before the election.”

Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) says Michigan’s economic woes are rooted in socialist policies, and she blames labor unions, taxes and regulations for the tough economic climate in the state.

Bachmann made the comments on the Steve Deace Show in Iowa before the Nov. 9 debate in the Wolverine State. Deace had asked Bachmann about the “pro-active, positive solution that is the alternative to socialism” in Michigan.

“It’s the fruition of all of the policies of the left which really have their origin in socialism,” Bachmann said of Michigan’s struggling economy. “If there’s anything we should have learned by now it’s that socialism doesn’t work and it’s principles don’t work.”

She also attacked other GOP presidential candidates for supporting the auto bailout, calling it the latest example of socialism in the state and saying “you won’t find any surprises with me.”

“You will find in me a core conviction,” she said, providing a nod to the title of her new book. “I’ve been the only consistent conservative in this race.”

The solution to Michigan’s unemployment problem is reducing union influence by making it a right to work state, which would allow companies to cut back on wages and benefits and be more competitive, she said.

She praised Iowa, which has a law prohibiting union membership or payment of union dues as a condition of employment. About half the states in the U.S. have a similar law; Michigan does not.

“When you have a right to work state then you can have companies adjust wages so they can open up shops to more and more hires and more employees,” Bachmann said.

She said then as more companies opened up, shop wages would eventually increase as businesses work to attract the best talent, especially if taxes and regulations are slashed at the same time.

“If we can have the tax burden lower and if we can have the regulatory burden lower then employers can afford to pay more to bid up wages and bid up benefits and then everybody succeeds,” she said.

The actual wage disparities between right to work states and those that aren’t has been a hotly contested topic for decades — or at least since most of the nation’s 22 right to work states passed their laws in the 1940s and 1950s following the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which was enacted as a response to (and amended) the Wagner Act of 1935. The latter lays out the rights of workers to unionize, while the former addressed what was then described as too much power by the unions.

Right to work essentially allows all workers at a business where a union has organized to be represented by the union, bound by the union-negotiated contract and use the union as a bargaining agent without ever having to pay union due or join the union.

In 2001 by Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute found that “the most important aspect of right-to-work law is its effect on wages.”

… On average, men in RTW states earn 7.8 percent less than their counterparts in non-RTW states; women in RTW states earn 6.8 percent less. … [W]e find that, even after controlling for regional costs of living, workers in right-to-work states earn less per hour. Particularly interesting is the affect on workers living in cities that are stretch across state line, placing it in both a right-to-work state and a non-RTW state. Seventeen out of 433 metropolitan areas in our sample (nearly 4 percent) spill over from a right-to-work state to a non-RTW state. Our analysis indicates that, in areas where a pure RTW state effect exists (i.e., no spill-over effect), the right-to-work penalty is larger. In fact, we find that living near a non-RTW state helps raise workers’ wages. …

But instead of focusing on individual wages, those that support right-to-work laws often point to a state’s overall economic situation — a similar argument to the one Bachmann made. For instance, the conservative Public Institute at Iowa Wesleyan College (now known as the Public Interest Institute), in a 2000 paper defending Iowa’s right-to-work law, noted a 1998 study that “Iowa outperformed most of its neighboring closed-shop states.”

… Four closed shop states border Iowa: Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. From 1947-1992, Iowa’s rate of manufacturing growth was equal to that of Missouri, slightly ahead of Wisconsin, 1.5 times higher than Minnesota, and over 5.5 times higher than Illinois. This is strong evidence that Iowa has done much better economically since enacting its right-to-work law. …

A super-PAC backing GOP presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry has begun buying ads in the Des Moines TV market, while Perry himself is continuing a media blitz in the Hawkeye State that began in late October.

Make Us Great Again has bought $29,813 in airtime at KCCI in Des Moines, the local CBS affiliate and leading network TV station in the state. The ads are scheduled to run from Nov. 3 to Nov. 11.

Make Us Great Again has so far made $417,205 in independent expenditures, the third most of any super PAC.

The ad “Leadership” touts Perry as a military man and farmer that based lawsuit reforms and cut regulations while creating jobs in Texas:

The ad “Conservative” has a similar intro but praises him for cutting spending and balancing the budget, again while creating jobs in his state:

Perry himself has ads scheduled through Nov. 14 at KCCI. He’s spent $104,179 so far at that station and WHO, the local NBC affiliate in Des Moines. The latest ad on Perry’s youtube channel attacks perceived GOP frontrunner and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for comments on the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Army Corps of Engineers needs to change the way it manages the Missouri River, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad says, and the region overall needs a new approach to battling flooding along the major waterway.

Branstad said the floods along the Missouri River this year, which shut down miles of bridges and roadways for months, were different than other flooding events because of the length of inundation.

“And the length of it was certainly determined by the amount of water that was released from the dams upstream on the Missouri River,” he said.

Last week the state withdrew from the Missouri River Association of States and Tribes, a group of 28 tribes and eight states meant to facilitate management of the waterway. Branstad said Monday Iowa’s voice wasn’t being heard in that organization.

“And in fact the agencies that have been involved in this for a number of years have felt that our voice has been ignored,” Branstad said. “Missouri chose not to be a member and Nebraska and Iowa have withdrawn.”

Flooding didn’t get the emphasis it deserved from MoRAST, Branstad said, which he and other governors believed was the primary responsibility of group.

Branstad made the comments at a press conference Monday morning, where he praised Iowa Department of Transportation Director Paul Trombino for working quickly to restore highways hit by Missouri River flooding this summer.

The quick repairs have helped limit the economic impact of the flooding, Branstad said. A total of 77 miles of state highways were closed at the height of the flooding, including three major Missouri River crossings.

Trombino said repair costs are near $50 million at this point, but all projects are eligible for 100 percent federal reimbursement. Repairs to Interstate Highway 680 were finished quickly enough to receive full funding from Washington, D.C.

The state will absorb some costs, Trombino said. For instance, weirs and dikes are being built along Iowa Highway 175, which the federal government considers betterment rather than repair.

“But we feel the long-term preservation of the roadway and the bridge was in the interest, so we made some additional improvements, such as armory shoulders, again, to get prepared for any issue that comes in the future,” Trombino said.

Flooding in the Hawkeye State is unpredictable, Branstad said, noting recent years have seen events in eastern Iowa, central Iowa and now western Iowa. Dubuque also saw flash flooding this year because of an overnight downpour.

“We need to do the best we can but it’s never possible to predict exactly where you’re going to have it,” Branstad said.

Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division Director Derek Hill is reviewing the flooding along the Missouri and preparing a report, which Branstad said will give an indication how to address future flooding situations.

“We intend to work with the governors of the other states to try to have a strong voice on behalf of our constituents,” he said.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) stole the spotlight at the Republican Party of Iowa’s Reagan Dinner on Friday evening in Des Moines with a unique strategy that drew the most applause from the audience.

Gingrich, who spoke last, spent nearly half of his 10 minute time allotment praising his fellow GOP candidates, saying “I’m really proud of my colleagues.”

Gingrich said U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has been “consistently correct about the need to audit the federal reserve,” and is right about the need to return to a gold standard.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry “was my mentor on the 10th Amendment and the importance of implementing it,” Gingrich continued, and has good ideas on energy and tax policy.

Gingrich said U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) “deserves a lot of credit” for fighting against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and other things.

“Not only did she stand up to Republican leadership at time when she was virtually alone,” he said. “But in addition she was the first person to introduce a bill to repeal the Dodd-Frank bill, which is one of the most destructive bills crippling our economy today.”

And former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) has shown courage in his foreign policy stances, Gingrich said.

“No one has done more to try to arouse Americans to understand the challenge of radical Islamism, to understand the dangers in Syria and Iran, than Rick Santorum,” he said.

Not in attendance Friday evening were businessman Herman Cain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the national frontrunners.

“I look at my colleagues and say this was a great group,” Gingrich said. “There were a couple I wish were here tonight, and I would have said nice things about them. But we’ll skip over that.”

Gingrich spent the rest of his time outlining why he is the best choice to take on President Obama. He said he’s offered the most substantive candidacy in modern times through his plan for a 21st Century Contract with America and a series of executive orders.

He also noted he’s the only candidate who at the national level has led efforts to balance the budget, cut taxes, create jobs and garner a Republican majority.

“What we are faced with is the results of a radical ideology and an inexperienced, incompetent president,” Gingrich said. “And I would simply suggest that to get the scale of change we need we need somebody who understands the legislative branch, somebody who understands how to get things done in Washington, and somebody who has a track record of having built a national movement which can in fact bring pressure to bear in Washington.”

Friday marked the second time in recent weeks Gingrich has garnered the most applause at a major conservative event in Iowa. He also stole the show at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition presidential forum on Oct. 22 in Des Moines.

About 1,000 people attended the Republican Party of Iowa’s Ronald Reagan Dinner on Friday evening in Des Moines. Each candidate was given 10 minutes to speak to the crowd.

Tickets were $75 for general seating, $150 for reserved seating, $1,000 for a table of 10 or $1,500 for a table of ten with two host reception tickets.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey have asked the U.S. Department of Labor to extend the commenting period on new child labor laws that could impact family farming operations in Iowa and throughout the nation.

As The Iowa Independent reported in September, the DOL proposed rule change (the first since 1970) is intended to “strengthen the safety requirements for young workers employed in agriculture and related fields” and is expected to bring such occupations more in line with restrictions that already exist for young workers in non-ag-related jobs.

Although the rule continues a current exemption for children working on family-owned farms, a spokesperson from the National Council of Agricultural employers is skeptical. Many family farms have legally moved from a sole proprietorship to a limited liability company, which means the definition used by the exemption may not hold. In essence, youth would not be working directly for their parents or relatives, but for the company.

Branstad and Northey believe the regulations will discourage farmers from engaging young people in agriculture, which has been an ongoing initiative at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and will prevent future farmers from acquiring the skills and experience needed for a career in agriculture.

“These new, over-reaching regulations will prevent young people from learning through supervised hands-on experience and obtaining life-long values,” Branstad said. “The federal government should not construct further employment barriers at a time when there are fewer job opportunities available for young people.”

Northey added, “We need more young farmers in Iowa to carry on our agricultural traditions.”

The pair has asked the DOL to increase the commenting period by 45 days to Jan. 15, 2012.

A copy of the letter is embedded below.

Branstad, Northey correspondence to DOL