Debate on Methane from Cows

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would be banned from requiring livestock operations to seek permits or pay fees such as a "cow tax" for methane or other biological livestock emissions under a bill that recently received a hearing in the U.S. Senate.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on a bipartisan bill led by Senator John Thune, R-SD, titled the Livestock Regulatory Protection Act. "Passing this legislation would provide livestock producers long-term certainty that their livelihoods would not be compromised by regulatory overreach," Thune said.

EPA has not proposed any regulations or permit fees on greenhouse emissions from livestock operations. Still, the concern that EPA would move in that direction has been a focus of agricultural groups for more than a decade.

Scott VanderWal, President of the South Dakota Farm Bureau and Vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, told senators the legislation was needed to permanently codify a protection against EPA oversight of livestock emissions that Congress has included in EPA funding bills for more than a decade. "We do not need to burden our hard-working farmers and ranchers with onerous regulations and costly permit fees," VanderWal told senators.

Editor’s Take:

Could you ever imagine that the U.S. Senate would be spending time debating methane emissions from cows? Yet, an over-zealous EPA could literally bring the nation’s livestock industry to its knees by burdensome fees and regulations to control cow emissions. It is not far-fetched to believe this could easily happen. That is precisely why it is a very real concern for the livestock producers in the U.S. It is unfortunate that the Senate has to adopt pre-emptive legislation to guard against such actions by the EPA. There are many reasons for you to be concerned for the future of the livestock industry in America. One big reason – livestock producers purchase and lease a lot of trucks.