The North Dakota State Senate has approved and sent forward legislation that would create a State Department of Environmental Quality. The State Farm Bureau opposes SB 2327. Public Policy Director Pete Hanebutt says the measure calls for moving workers out of the state health department into this new agency.

He says they’re concerned this new department would be very political and controlled by environmentalists who don’t have agriculture’s best interests at heart.

Hanebutt says the State Health Department is already doing a great job of handling environmental and agricultural issues, like permitting livestock. He says creating a separate department only adds to government red tape and unneeded cost.

Hanebutt says it’ll be late next week at the earliest before the measure surfaces in the North Dakota House.