Farmers are up in arms over a Bush admin EPA proposal to levy $175 a year on each dairy cow, 87.50 on beef cattle, and $20 per hog. via Yahoo:
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.
Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.
“This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do,” said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.
…
EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield said the fee was proposed for farms with livestock operations that emit more than 100 tons of carbon emissions in a year and fall under federal Clean Air Act provisions.
Butterfield said the EPA has not taken a position on any of the proposals. But farmers from across the country have expressed outrage over the idea, both on Internet sites and in opinions sent to EPA during a public comment period that ended last week.
Unfortunately the AP article does a poor job of explaining the genesis of this proposal, the thinking behind it, and how serious the EPA actually is. It sounds a little like it is simply a natural progression, of the EPA following the dictates of Congressional laws and court decisions. You asked for it, you got it. Government by the people, etc. Continue reading . . .(it’s quite funny, actually).
