Many of us in the industry are not immune to the inevitable 'natural gas' jokes best suited to a five-year-old's sense of humor. But 'natural gas' is no laughing matter for the Environmental Protection Agency, which reportedly has proposed charging farmers and ranchers an annual fee for livestock that produce excessive greenhouse gases.
The proposed rules would impose fees on farms or ranches that own over 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs, amounting to $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 per hog, the Associated Press reports. An EPA spokesman, justifying the agency's rulemaking as per the Clean Air Act, says the rules would affect farms that possess livestock emitting over 100 tons of carbon emissions in year.
Naturally, this notion to tax flatulent cows was met with anger and even incredulousness from the farming industry, with some estimates foreseeing modest-sized cattle ranches paying upwards of $40,000 a year.
"Who comes up with this kind of stuff?" Perry Mobley, director of the Alabama Farmers Federation's beef division, said in the AP story. "It seems there is an ulterior motive, to destroy livestock farms. This would certainly put them out of business."
But the jovial group of analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt & Company, tongue in cheek, says the EPA's proposal makes "perfect sense."
"Cows and hogs have been harming the environment for centuries simply by living, breathing, etc.," the firm said in the Friday Humor section of its daily research note. "We in Texas subscribe to the theory that eating more meat/pork would likely solve this problem. Unless we're missing the point entirely."
All 'natural gas' jokes aside, though, the impact to farmers could be significant, and EPA may be better off focusing on manmade greenhouse gases -- not the naturally occurring brand that is subject to schoolyard humor.
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