A recent Associated Press story highlights the efforts of the farm lobby to kill the so called “cow tax.” For Associated Press story, click here. The “cow tax” is the cost of getting a emissions permit from the EPA for the releases of methane gas, a greenhouse gas, released naturally by the cattle. Although President Obama had no plans to regulate the releases,
[t]he message circulating in Internet chat rooms, the halls of Congress and farm co-ops had America's farms facing financial ruin if the EPA required them to purchase air-pollution permits like power plants and factories do. The cost of those permits amounted to a cow tax, farm groups argued.According to Farm Bureau lobbyist Rick Krause,
“It really has taken on a life of its own... This is something that people understand. All that we have to say is that (cows) are the next step with these proposed permit fees. And people are still talking about it.”
The climate change bill currently before Congress specifically excludes the form of methane released by livestock, and directs EPA not to regulate it. Others have introduced legislation bar the EPA from requiring farmers to get permits.
“I think they realized that if you are a Democrat in an agricultural state, a red state, that this is radioactive and I think that is why they have tried scrupulously to reaffirm that they don't have any intention of doing this," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. He is sponsoring a bill that would bar the EPA from requiring farmers to get permits for cattle burps.Finally, according to another Associated Press story, greener diets can reduce the methane burps by dairy cattle. To view story, click here.
Thune, whose state is home to a half-million cattle, first heard about the cow tax at a South Dakota Cattlemen Association's conference in early December. Within weeks he introduced his bill and recruited support from New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, whose state boasts three times more cows.
Posted: 06/23/09
