Local Farmers Say Proposed Livestock “Gas” Tax Stinks
The EPA is proposing a livestock tax on beef and dairy cattle as well as hogs, because they’re allegedly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The tax on beef cattle would be for herds larger than 50, 25 for dairy cattle and 200 for hogs and would carry an EPA minimum of 43.75 per ton or about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 for each head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.
At current prices, the fee amounts to well over ten percent of the cost of the livestock. The fee would potentially cause a significant increase in the cost of beef, pork and dairy products.
Local farmers think something stinks about this proposal. H.I. Jones who runs a small herd in southern Floyd County says he doesn’t make enough at the sale barn on each cow to pay the $87.50 per head tax that the EPA is proposing.
Mark Braden says the farmer who doesn’t have to pay if he has less than 50- cows, as opposed to the farmer with 51 who has to pay a per head fee, is highly discriminatory.
Mark Maslyn executive director of public policy for The American Farm Bureau Federation said the proposed rules would be ineffective because of the global nature of greenhouse gases. “Reduction of a ton of greenhouse gases anywhere will make a difference, but if a ton is removed in Iowa and replaced by a ton in China, then no net effect occurred.” He added, “A livestock tax and regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act will impose restrictions and added costs on the U.S. economy without reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”
There no word on when the EPA is expected to rule on this matter or when the tax would be implemented.
Details are available at the Environmental Protection Agency’s site on the web.
