Obama touts EPA effort to exempt milk from oil-spill rules

President Obama touted Tuesday his administration’s decision to exempt milk from broader oil-spill prevention rules, arguing that he is working to eliminate regulations that “don’t make sense.”

“We got rid of one rule from 40 years ago that could have forced some dairy farmers to spend $10,000 a year proving that they could contain a spill – because milk was somehow classified as an oil,” Obama said during the third State of the Union address of his presidency. “With a rule like that, I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk.”

Obama used the milk exemption to counter GOP claims that his administration is imposing overly stringent regulations that are burdening the economy. 

“I’ve ordered every federal agency to eliminate rules that don’t make sense,” he said. “We’ve already announced over 500 reforms, and just a fraction of them will save business and citizens more than $10 billion over the next five years.”

The Environmental Protection Agency last year exempted milk and milk containers from broader oil-spill prevention regulations meant to protect inland waterways.

Republicans and agriculture groups have raised concerns in recent months that the regulations, known as the Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure rule, could place restrictions on spilled milk.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and other administration officials insisted that the rules, which were first implemented in the 1970s, were never intended to regulate spilled milk.