Taxing Cows

EPA run amok, and this is under the Bush administration. What will happen under the greenie Obama regime?

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.

It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.

The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."

Sure, this makes sense--at a time when the entire economy is teetering, drive another sector into the ground--and sure, let's import meat (yeah, that's what we need, mystery meat!)--sure, let's pay for jobs overseas, not at home.

P.S. Recall the lunatic Supreme Court decision that ushered all this in. UPDATE: WaPo on Obama's eco-picks. Kossacks like the misery.