EPA ‘Cow Tax’ Could Charge $175 per Dairy Cow to Curb Greenhouse Gases

[Garcia Bronco]

EPA ‘Cow Tax’ Could Charge $175 per Dairy Cow to Curb Greenhouse Gases

Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
January 5, 2008

Call this one of the newest and innovative the ways your government has come up with to battle greenhouse gas emissions.

Indirectly it could be considered a cheeseburger tax, but one of the suggestions offered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act is to levy a tax on livestock.

The ANPR, released early this year, would give the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas for not only greenhouse gas from manmade sources like transportation and industry, but also “stationary” sources which would include livestock.

The New York Farm Bureau assigned a price tag to the cost of greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA in a release last month.

“The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog,” the release said. “Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”

Kate Galbraith, correspondent for The New York Times, noted on the Times’ “Green Inc.” blog that such a “proposal is far from being enacted” and that the “hysteria may be premature.”

But Rick Krause, senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau, warned it’s certainly feasible – especially based on the rhetoric of President-elect Barack Obama and the use of the EPA to combat global warming. Such action by an Obama administration would take an act of Congress for livestock to be exempt.


“The new president has been on record as saying that he really supports regulating greenhouse gases out of the Clean Air Act,” Krause said to the Business & Media Institute. “So, we really have to keep an eye on it. Legislation would really be the only way to exempt it at this point – the cow tax.”

Krause said it is difficult to quantify the cost that might be passed directly to the consumer by farmers from the legislation, but predicted it would mean higher costs for dairy production.

“It’s hard to figure what it would do to consumer prices since farmers, unlike other industries, really can’t pass their cost along directly like utilities and things do,” “About the only thing we could realistically come up, in terms of any of this stuff – it would add between 7 and 8 cents per gallon of milk costs to farmers. So it would cost them 7 or 8 cents more to produce a gallon of milk.”

Even the Department of Agriculture warned the EPA that smaller farms and ranches would have difficulty with limits as much as 100 tons annually on emissions:

“If GHG emissions from agricultural sources are regulated under the CAA, numerous farming operations that currently are not subject to the costly and time-consuming Title V permitting process would, for the first time, become covered entities. Even very small agricultural operations would meet a 100-tons-per-year emissions threshold. For example, dairy facilities with over 25 cows, beef cattle operations of over 50 cattle, swine operations with over 200 hogs, and farms with over 500 acres of corn may need to get a Title V permit. It is neither efficient nor practical to require permitting and reporting of GHG emissions from farms of this size. Excluding only the 200,000 largest commercial farms, our agricultural landscape is comprised of 1.9 million farms with an average value of production of $25,589 on 271 acres. These operations simply could not bear the regulatory compliance costs that would be involved.”

http://www.infowars.com/?p=6973

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/20...out-a-cow-tax/

[Meck77]

Like I've been saying they are going to find any means possible to tax us going forward. Cattle ranching margins are already razor thin. This would certainly put a lot of farmers/ranchers out of the business.


Meanwhile we're bailing out GM so soccer moms can drive Hummers around that get a few mile per gallon.

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by Meck77

Like I've been saying they are going to find any means possible to tax us going forward. Cattle ranching margins are already razor thin. This would certainly put a lot of farmers/ranchers out of the business.


Meanwhile we're bailing out GM so soccer moms can drive Hummers around that get a few mile per gallon.

It makes you laugh. The amusing thing is probably the people they claim to want to help so much would hurt the most from something like this.

"I can't get you to agree to my ideas. So I am going to use economic warfare to try and force you to my way of thinking."

[Smiling Assassin27]

Typical for these morons who base these policies on false assumptions, bad science, and a hankering for more money to play with on the Hill. Time to start hiding our cows in underground barns...

[Hotrod]

The poor people they claim to be champions for keep getting kicked in the nuts by the socialist party.

[Rohirrim]

Let me get this straight: We're taxing cow farts?

[Dudeskey]

You kidding me?

[Garcia Bronco]

Not just cows, but livestock. Hogs as well.

[Hotrod]

Taxing Hog and Cow farts is stupid. It really cant be done. Who determines the amount of gas given off by each animal I say we have a **** tax. That is atleast measureable.

[Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by Dortoh

Taxing Hog and Cow farts is stupid. It really cant be done. Who determines the amount of gas given off by each animal I say we have a **** tax. That is atleast measureable.

Damn! My wife already wants me to move out into the garage. If they started taxing me for it, I'd really be up **** creek... so to speak.

[bronclvr]

Originally Posted by Dortoh

I say we have a **** tax. That is atleast measureable.

Did I mis-read your Post or did you just offer to measure it?

[Hotrod]

Originally Posted by bronclvr

Did I mis-read your Post or did you just offer to measure it?

definatly a mis-read

[Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by bronclvr

Did I mis-read your Post or did you just offer to measure it?

Yeah. Imagine the guy with that job.

[bronclvr]

Originally Posted by Dortoh

definatly a mis-read

Oh-okay, my bad

[cutthemdown]

I'm more worried about more gas tax. With gas so low there isn't enough money for road upkeep and construction. They may add to it very soon.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

EPA ‘Cow Tax’ Could Charge $175 per Dairy Cow to Curb Greenhouse Gases

Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
January 5, 2008

Call this one of the newest and innovative the ways your government has come up with to battle greenhouse gas emissions.

Indirectly it could be considered a cheeseburger tax, but one of the suggestions offered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act is to levy a tax on livestock.

The ANPR, released early this year, would give the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas for not only greenhouse gas from manmade sources like transportation and industry, but also “stationary” sources which would include livestock.

The New York Farm Bureau assigned a price tag to the cost of greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA in a release last month.

“The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog,” the release said. “Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”

Kate Galbraith, correspondent for The New York Times, noted on the Times’ “Green Inc.” blog that such a “proposal is far from being enacted” and that the “hysteria may be premature.”

But Rick Krause, senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau, warned it’s certainly feasible – especially based on the rhetoric of President-elect Barack Obama and the use of the EPA to combat global warming. Such action by an Obama administration would take an act of Congress for livestock to be exempt.


“The new president has been on record as saying that he really supports regulating greenhouse gases out of the Clean Air Act,” Krause said to the Business & Media Institute. “So, we really have to keep an eye on it. Legislation would really be the only way to exempt it at this point – the cow tax.”

Krause said it is difficult to quantify the cost that might be passed directly to the consumer by farmers from the legislation, but predicted it would mean higher costs for dairy production.

“It’s hard to figure what it would do to consumer prices since farmers, unlike other industries, really can’t pass their cost along directly like utilities and things do,” “About the only thing we could realistically come up, in terms of any of this stuff – it would add between 7 and 8 cents per gallon of milk costs to farmers. So it would cost them 7 or 8 cents more to produce a gallon of milk.”

Even the Department of Agriculture warned the EPA that smaller farms and ranches would have difficulty with limits as much as 100 tons annually on emissions:

“If GHG emissions from agricultural sources are regulated under the CAA, numerous farming operations that currently are not subject to the costly and time-consuming Title V permitting process would, for the first time, become covered entities. Even very small agricultural operations would meet a 100-tons-per-year emissions threshold. For example, dairy facilities with over 25 cows, beef cattle operations of over 50 cattle, swine operations with over 200 hogs, and farms with over 500 acres of corn may need to get a Title V permit. It is neither efficient nor practical to require permitting and reporting of GHG emissions from farms of this size. Excluding only the 200,000 largest commercial farms, our agricultural landscape is comprised of 1.9 million farms with an average value of production of $25,589 on 271 acres. These operations simply could not bear the regulatory compliance costs that would be involved.”

http://www.infowars.com/?p=6973

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/20...out-a-cow-tax/

Well its intellectually consistant -- if one is a convert to the new 21st century Druid faith.

[watermock]

They've allready got the RFID tag plan in place.

[watermock]

Just another tool to make the family farm extinct.

[Bronco Bob]

Methane(CH4) is a much stronger Greenhouse gas than CO2.

[broncocalijohn]

Originally Posted by Bronco Bob

Methane(CH4) is a much stronger Greenhouse gas than CO2.

who cares (on topic)? Business and those that eat meat will feel the pain on this tax and how much will it help? Minimal and it will cost jobs. Another stupid plan by good doers.

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by Bronco Bob

Methane(CH4) is a much stronger Greenhouse gas than CO2.

So do you support this proposal by the EPA?

[bronclvr]

What's next? Taxing Volcanos and Forest Fires?

[Hotrod]

Thank God I hunt for 90% of the meat in my freezer.

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by Dortoh

Thank God I hunt for 90% of the meat in my freezer.

Interesting. What if the EPA says you as a hunter are responsible for this tax as well? Technically they could say you fall under this proposal.

[Hotrod]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Interesting. What if the EPA says you as a hunter are responsible for this tax as well? Technically they could say you fall under this proposal.

Good point.

I worry much more about new laws that are being pushed that would make me register ammo purchases and tax the **** out of ammo. Also some states are trying to limit the amount you can own and make reloading illegal.

Cant take my guns so they attack my ammo........