TAAA Newsletter

June 30, 2017

Texas Agricultural Aviation Association | www.taaa.org

TAAA Newsletter

Via: AgPro

Arkansas Dicamba Ban Passes

A rollercoaster dicamba ride passed a major benchmark on Friday, as the Arkansas State Plant Board (ASPB) voted to recommend an emergency dicamba ban. The recommendation applies to Engenia products for the remainder of the 2017 crop season. (Xtendimax dicamba technology was already banned in Arkansas in January 2017.)

After an 8-6 vote in favor of a dicamba ban was negated by procedural error on June 20, the ASPB upheld the original 8-6 vote in favor of a 120-day emergency order requiring the cessation of in-crop dicamba use. As of June 23, the Arkansas Agriculture Department (AAD) had received 242 dicamba misuse complaints spread across 19 counties.

Read more here.

Via: NAAA

NAAA Endorses Legislation Providing Local Authority of Drone Use and Technological Safeguards

NAAA, in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) last week, supported legislative efforts to provide local governments authority over drone use, as well as legislation requiring technological safeguards for drones.

Feinstein is the author of "The Drone Federalism Act of 2017" (S.1272), which was introduced last month. S.1272 would create a process by which the federal government would work with state and local governments to manage the use of both recreational and commercial drones and issue reasonable restrictions on the time, manner and place of operation of a civil unmanned aircraft system that is operated below 200 feet above ground level or within 200 feet of a structure. The bill defines "reasonable restrictions" to include: limits on speed; prohibitions on flight near any public or private property; restrictions on operations during certain times of day or week, or special occasions; and other "prohibitions that protect public safety, personal privacy, or property rights, or that manage land use or restrict noise pollution."

Read more here.

Via: New Tork Times

As Climate Changes, Southern
States Will Suffer More Than Others

As global warming cooks the United States in the decades ahead, not all states will suffer equally. Maine may benefit from milder winters. Florida, by contrast, could face major losses, as deadly heat waves flare up in the summer and rising sea levels eat away at valuable coastal properties.

In a new study in the journal Science, researchers analyzed the economic harm that climate change could inflict on the United States in the coming century. They found that the impacts could prove highly unequal: states in the Northeast and West would fare relatively well, while parts of the Midwest and Southeast would be especially hard hit.