Global warming and the price of beef

From the St. Louis Dispatch:

Since the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency could declare carbon dioxide as a pollutant, the agency was ultimately given the authority to regulate methane gas — or cow farts too.

According to ClimateRealists.com, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. spoke at the Heartland Institute’s Third International Conference on Climate Change in Washington, D.C., on June 2 about the EPA’s proposed regulation:

To show you how ridiculous this is getting, the EPA has got the proposed regulation imposing a cow fart tax of $175 a year on every head of dairy cattle in the United States and $80 for beef cattle, $20 per head of hogs. I don’t know if we’re supposed to develop the technology to strap a catalytic converter on the back of a cow.

The proposed regulation came on the heels of a new study by Argentine agricultural researcher Guillermo Berra, released in July 2008, which found that a 1,200-pound cow could generate 28 to 35 cubic feet of methane each day, according to Reuters.

According to the Huffington Post, this new regulation, if imposed, could cost the average cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. Sooner or later, it will trickle down to consumers. ...

More here. Just wait, it's only a matter of time before our, um, less fragrant emissions are taxed as well. The whole sordid affair to be overseen (oversmelt?) by America's new Fart Czar.

You know, there's something quite unseemly about the words "America" and "czar" in the same sentence, and the recent proliferation of czars of every stripe ought to be quite disturbing to non-Leftists. Oh well, more Hope and Chains We Can Believe In, I guess.