I saw a snippet about this yesterday in the DC Examiner about the idea of the E.P.A. taxing farmers with a certain amount of livestock for rising levels of methane and other polluting nitrous gases emitted by their farm animals.

I decided to do some research on it and found that the actual tax has not been proposed by the EPA (yet) but that a lobbying group for farmers believes that a new report released by the EPA hints at it. I'm including snippets from the AP article:

  • "John Millett, a spokesman for EPA's air and radiation division, said there has been an oversimplification of the EPA's document "to the point of distortion." "EPA is not proposing any type of tax on livestock," he said.

    The EPA briefly mentions "raising livestock" in its report on ways to regulate greenhouse gases under the provisions of the Clean Air Act.

    Farmers from across the country have expressed outrage over the EPA report, both on Internet sites and in opinions sent to EPA during a public comment period that ended last week. Many call it a "cow tax" and say the EPA proposed it.

    "It's something that really has a very big potential adverse impact for the livestock industry," said Rick Krause, the senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

    The fee would cover the cost of a permit for the livestock operations. While farmers say it would drive them out of business, an organization supporting the proposal hopes it forces the farms and ranches to switch to healthier crops." (Read the full article here)

While the EPA has clearly said this tax is not in the works, farmers and other interested groups seem to believe that it could be in the near future.