In what amounted to “the agency’s most direct endorsement yet” of the legislation, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan recently backed so-called “Right to Repair” rules, reports POLITICO.

However, these regulations constitute “a misguided solution in search of a problem that simply does not exist,” according to the National Association of Manufacturers which has been engaging on the issue since 2021.

Responding to a June request from [National Farmers Union] President Rob Larew, Regan hit back at a key argument some manufacturers have made against those repair laws,” POLITICO reports. “Not only does the Clean Air Act not ban farmers from using independent repair shops, as some manufacturers have claimed, it actually prohibits manufacturers from taking steps to impede repair, he wrote.”

In his note to Regan, Larew—whose own letter requested clarification on the role of the Clean Air Act in farmers’ access to equipment repair—writes that there are “certain groups that are misleadingly invoking the Clean Air Act … as justification for limiting consumers’ Right to Repair farm equipment.”

Manufacturers aren’t impeding consumer repair efforts at all, said NAM Managing Vice President of Policy Chris Netram.

“In truth, farmers  have access to the information, tools and parts necessary to repair virtually any malfunction with a piece of equipment they own,” Netram told the Federal Trade Commission in 2021.

“Original equipment manufacturers provide a wide range of resources, including manuals, product guides, product service trainings, diagnostics tools and more, that enable consumers and third-party repair businesses to maintain, diagnose and repair their products.”

The only thing end users cannot access easily is embedded machinery coding that is either required by federal safety laws or proprietary and unnecessary for repair work.

“FTC-mandated access to the software and coding embedded inside machinery would not bolster purchasers’ rights to repair their own equipment,” he said. “Rather, overbroad Right to Repair regulations would create a new right to modify, potentially endangering consumers and allowing for unlawful modifications of government-mandated safety and emissions limits.” It would also jeopardize manufacturers’ intellectual property, he noted.