In a massive power grab the EPA is attempting to tax all sources of greenhouse gasses. If your cow farts they want your money. Same goes for your pigs. Your house. Anything. In this battle the USDA, and virtually all other US government departments, are on our side fighting against the USDA. If the USDA EPA has their way it would impose an annual tax of $20 per pig and $87.50 per cow. Who knows how much they’ll tax your home or wood stove but you can bet once they get their slimy claws into your life they’ll never let go.
I had planned to do a more detailed analysis and post about this but with winter coming on I’m rushing to finish up fall projects here on the farm.
Go post comments on the Federal Registry immediately. Comments are due Friday November 28th, 2008. Please oppose the EPA’s power grab. If you think the current financial crisis is putting a damper on the economy you haven’t seen anything. The EPA’s emissions tax will kill the American economy without solving pollution or global warming in the slightest.
For an easy to use form to voice your opinion click here.
You can read more about it here as well.
You can find the EPA document here in PDF format.
My comment is below:
I am opposed to the EPA’s proposals for regulation of greenhouse gases which will create onerous regulatory hurdles to doing business, raise prices for consumers, destroy our agricultural sector, plunge our economy into a deep recession all while failing to solve the pollution or global warming problems. Additionally the EPA is totally failing to recognize that most farmers have enormous acres of forests and fields that are soaking up greenhouse gasses. We are the solution, not the problem. The EPA proposal is nothing more than an egarious power grab that must be stopped dead.
Act now - go to the Federal Registry and click on the yellow balloon to leave comments. Be sure to click “Next Step” at the bottom after entering your comment. Then on the next page click “Submit” to make sure your comment is submitted.
Note: The Federal Registry site sometimes breaks links. If the above link does not work for you then go to the Federal Registery site and enter the docket number:
In the left column there will then be a link for “Proposed Rules”. Click it. This will get you to “Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under the Clean Air Act”. Click that. Then you can make your comments as described above.
You’ve mentioned specific amounts “20 per pig and 87.50 per cow” — and there is no mention of either of those numbers in the EPA document. Where did those numbers come from?
Comment bruce king — November 28, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Bruce, see the link above (here again) where you can read more about it. They discuss the costs. In the Federal Registry the USDA comments discuss:
I suspect that the Title V permitting costs were used to to calculate that per animal tax.
Very important: realize that this is not a tax on cows, pigs or other livestock. This is a ‘tax’ on any emissions. According to the EPA documents they will gain the power to regulate your home, your apartment, your corn field, your rice paddies, your livestock and any other source of greenhouse gases (GHG). Yes, I said corn and rice field. Any crops that produce or disturb the soils to till may produce GHG and fall under Title V regulations.
You say, well, I don’t have 200 pigs or 500 acres of corn field. Perhaps, but do you like to eat? Consumer food prices will be driven up.
You say, well, I buy from local farmers with less than those minimums. Perhaps, but do you really think those minimums will stay the threshold? No, the EPA will continue to expand it’s powers.
Then remember the little bit about homes… They want to regulate your home. Forget having a wood stove. Forget cooking over the grill in the summer. You will have to make your house meet EPA standards, pay fees to get it inspected and approved or have it condemned. Want to talk housing crisis? Very few homes in America will meet the standards. This means all those homes will get dumped on the market for pennies on the dollar. That will create a new round of foreclosures and depress real estate prices further. The EPA is throwing gas on the fire.
This is far beyond a mere $20 per pig tax. Go comment now.
Comment walterj — November 28, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
I have been posting about this for a month. Glad to see your site. This is information might be useful to you.
Since Al Gore’s movie (classified as “propaganda” by UK courts), AGW hysteria has reached epic proportions. Carbon dioxide emissions are not a threat to mankind, government is, however, in imposing Draconian regulations to control a non-existent threat. Al Gore’s premise is based upon incompetent computer modeling not on facts. The “hockey stick” graph is not accurate. The “scientists” cooked the books. CO2 follows warming, it does not lead it. The polar bear pictures were not the truth, they are fine; the Maldives are not sinking. In March 2009 there is a 2nd conference of scientists in New York to refute AGW.
In addition to campaign threats to “bankrupt” the coal industry & impose “cap and trade,” both of which will impose huge economic burdens on our already overburdened economy, there is in Congress now a move to further cripple business and industry in our country. The EPA is soliciting comments to regulations controlling CO2 emissions from BUILDINGS. Search “http://EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0318-0402” to get to the government’s website and go to the comments section. On page 70 of the comments find Comment submitted by William L. Kovacs, Vice President, Environment, Technology & Regulatory Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce which outlines the massive oppression such legislation will inflict on our economy. Remember only Western, industrialized nations will bear this burden.
James A. Peden convincingly demolishes arguments that CO2 causes global warming.
“http://www.middlebury.net/op-ed/global-warming-01.html”
Canada Free Press has good 11-part series on history and politics of the CO2.
“http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3021”
Comment Bhoy — November 28, 2008 @ 11:59 pm
If you think these assertions sound far-fetched, just go back and look at history. Read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago”…
Absolutely mind-boggling the pace of government regulations put into effect to control and regulate citizens and farmers during the early years of the 20th century, causing famine, death, waves of people, literally everyone that was not in bed with government, being hauled off to prison camps for minor infractions of the “Code”, and in the end the downfall of Russia because of onerous regulations that were absolutely ridiculous, yet people lived in fear, AND DIED, from them. People that were just trying to survive by raising a few chickens… Millions were put to death, even children on the altar of what is best for society and the common good.
It appears we are headed there just as swiftly through Sustainable Development, Agenda 21, and the mantra - GO GREEN.
How sad. Our once great nation filled with strong individuals has met its match. Will we rise to the challenge that the peasants in Russia were unable to meet?
We can only hope…
Comment Valerie — November 29, 2008 @ 10:38 pm
Speak up to the Obama administration about these taxes. GO VOTE and put this to the TOP of the global warming ideas! It will put it on the administration’s agenda!
text
Comment Monica — December 8, 2008 @ 10:30 pm
If the EPA would just put a tax on husband farts, they could leave my cows and fields alone!
Comment Elaine — December 9, 2008 @ 10:24 am
Elaine, I represent that remark, Best keep it under cover so as not to give the EPA any more ideas.
Comment Paul-Martin:Griepentrog — December 10, 2008 @ 3:59 pm
Whoops, the EPA forgot to list the fees it will charge the states and National Parks per Bison, Elk, Moose, Deer, Antelope, and feral pigs. Our government agencies and legislators are rapidly and simultaneously attacking the citizenry on all fronts: The economy, our freedom, food and shelter, jobs (by destroying business), our sovereignty, heck our whole republic. I fear we will have to choose to either tighten our belts, or gird our loins.
Comment eileen — December 11, 2008 @ 6:49 pm