Posted on 12/01/2008 11:21:21 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Farmers Panic About a ‘Cow Tax’ By Kate Galbraith Should their greenhouse gases be taxed? (Photo: Steve Ruark for The New York Times)
The comment period for the Environmental Protection Agency’s exploration of greenhouse gas regulation ended last Friday, with farmers lobbying furiously against the notion of a “cow tax” on methane, a potent greenhouse gas emitted by livestock.
The New York Farm Bureau issued a statement last week (PDF) saying it feared that a tax could reach $175 per cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and upward of $20 for each hog.
Such a tax would represent a “massive hit on our industry here in New York,” said Peter Gregg, a spokesman for the farm bureau, in an interview.
“You could take all of our cows together and they probably wouldn’t have the same effect on the atmosphere than the average traffic jam on the Tappan Zee Bridge,” he added.
Farm officials from Texas to Alabama also sounded the alarm, and Mr. Gregg said that the response in New York among farmers was “almost a panic.”
The hysteria may be premature, however. The E.P.A. indeed issued an “advanced notice of proposed rulemaking” this summer that called for public comments on the idea of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from cars, as well as “stationary sources” — which, yes, would include cows and other livestock.
(Excerpt) Read more at greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Any tax is a good tax, and any excuse is a good excuse, when you’re a left-wing nutcase.
Solution to high milk prices. Kill the cows to teach them a lesson. MOOOOOOO
It’s their patriotic duty ...
The goal of “Global Warming” is to control people, to punish them for choosing “unapproved” behaviors and consumption.
This is the same goal for “universal healthcare” - to control behavior.
Cow Tax thanks to MOOOOOveon.org!
All those farmers in Iowa will get their reward for voting Obummer.
What about horses? And Zoo animals.....elephants are many times bigger than cows are.
yes I know the articles about New York but if the EPA really wants to make some $$$ it would go to the mid west.
When is the NYTimes last day publishing?
Hey....HEY....leave horses out of this. It already costs me a fortune to feed and take care of them. Horses farts aren’t dangerous anyway.....just don’t smell too good.
Yeah, that is something to worry about.
Hell, why don’t we just tax human beings for breathing, too. After all, by decree of the EPA, carbon-dioxide - and therefore exhaling, and therefore actual people, are pollutants. We should tax people for just being alive. That will save the planet!
The entire history of the EPA is one of amassing more control and driving up the costs of everything.
Nixon gave us the EPA,Bush gave us Homeland Security;the addition of a new bureaucracy is hardly ever the correct solution to a problem.
...or how to create mass starvation through tax policy.
It wasn’t the farmers who voted for Obama, check out the map, it was the mostly larger cities in Iowa that carried him.
Who is this going to affect the most, the lower income?
When will they learn the the lowly termite is the largest producer of methane...maybe we need better forest control to take care of the dead trees (facetious remark)!!!
Looks like a clever way to conceal the latest in Malthusian population control policy.
What about the micro, or family farmer? Would they have to pay the tax?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.