We have to first assume that global warming, or climate change, or whatever it’s called this week, is caused by us. That is a big assumption, one that Dear Leader Barack Hussein Obama embraces. Plus, as reinforcement, we have this Fact Sheet from Obama about methane gas as a contributor to global warming, I mean climate change, uh, I mean … :
… last June, President Obama issued a broad-based Climate Action Plan, announcing a series of executive actions to reduce carbon pollution, prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to address global climate change.
We are now ready for the EPA’s latest effort to waste our tax dollars. The EPA is calling for regulation of methane caused by COWS! No kidding! “Cows emit a massive amount of methane through belching, with a lesser amount through flatulence.”
First, the Fact Sheet says:
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced seven new “climate hubs” to help farmers and ranchers adapt their operations to a changing climate and the President’s Budget proposed a $1 billion in new funding for new technologies and incentives to build smarter, more resilient infrastructure to help communities prepare for a changing climate.
In June, in partnership with the dairy industry, the USDA, EPA and DOE will jointly release a “Biogas Roadmap” outlining voluntary strategies to accelerate adoption of methane digesters and other cost-effective technologies to reduce U.S. dairy sector greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.
Sounds innocuous enough, the EPA is seeking ways to curb methane imissions, looking out for us. But (and there’s always a ‘but’ when Obama is involved), the latest EPA efforts suggest otherwise.
Second, we get a study by the EPA, stating (Table 6-1, page 6-1) that methane (CH4) levels have increased by 13.6% (in Tg CO2 Eq. units – whatever that is) between 1990 and 2012. Never mind that emission is down by 2.3% between 2010 and 2012, and we don’t know what happened in 2013.
The study says that:
Methane is produced as part of normal digestive processes in animals. During digestion, microbes resident in an animal’s digestive system ferment food consumed by the animal. This microbial fermentation process, referred to as enteric fermentation, produces CH4 as a byproduct, which can be exhaled or eructated [belched] by the animal. The amount of CH4 produced and emitted by an individual animal depends primarily upon the animal’s digestive system, and the amount and type of feed it consumes.
The study says that ruminant animals, such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and camels, are the major emitters of CH4 because of their unique digestive system. Seventy one percent of methane came, in 2012, from beef cattle, 25% from dairy cattle, and 4% from the rest of the animals. So, according to Obama’s fact sheet, the EPA is going to go after the lesser source of methane – dairy cattle, while ignoring beef cattle. WOW! I can now sleep easier knowing tha the EPA is protecting me – said very sarcastically.
Did you notice that the report says that increases in methane output depend upon the amount and type of food consumed? That little phrase will, IMHO, become the open door through the EPA will rush and issue feed quality and quantity reguations. The result: higher prices.
And did you notice that the fact sheet says that $1 billion “for new technologies and incentives to build smarter, more resilient infrastructure to help communities prepare for a changing climate.” Hmmm, sounds familiar. Oh, yeah, electricity technology. I’ll bet that a vast portion of that money will go to Obama’s donors and cronies. When (not if) history repeats itself, no new technology will be developed. But the money will be spent, and we taxpayers will again foot the bill. Can anyone say “Green Energy?” What a fiasco that was/is.
From the same Fact Sheet we get this:
Reducing methane emissions is a powerful way to take action on climate change; and putting methane to use can support local economies with a source of clean energy that generates revenue, spurs investment and jobs, improves safety, and leads to cleaner air. When fully implemented, the policies in the methane strategy will improve public health and safety while recovering otherwise wasted energy to power our communities, farms, factories, and power plants.
I can just visualize the high-tech cow of the future as methane gas they emit will be captured. And WE will pay for the new technology via our tax dollars and higher prices for all things dairy and beef.
But that’s just my opinion.
Cross-posted at The Pot Stirrer, my very conservative web site!
This has been in the works for some time, as the American contingency of the Collective seeks to emulate their regressive European counterparts:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/662397.stm
http://www.mrc.org/articles/congressman-warns-cow-fart-tax-causing-beef-and-dairy-disappear-supermarkets
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/geoffrey-lean/7325762/Making-a-stink-over-flatulent-cattle.html
http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2012/12/cow_flatulence.php
Like the essential life sustaining gas CO2, methane is another ubiquitous material that allows despots to tax all human activity.
With any luck, a future sober administration will hopefully see fit to abolishing the EPA. It doesn’t serve a positive function.
What is the methane content of a mouth-fart from a liberal, because they are constantly and continuously blathering on and on in the most hot-air of ways, saying nothing but offending all? How about a control over those emissions?
I was once asked to work on the teeth of some dairy cattle in Southern California, as an experiment, to see if cows and heifers about to calve might have higher production ratios with good teeth. The work was brutal. Obviously, cows are not horses, but both dairy and beef cows lack the human animal bonding phase, except for family milk cows and oxen who work at logging and ranch work. Therefore, the cows didn’t understand the process or appreciate the effort. I’ve worked on three thousand pound oxen who appreciated a helping hand, and it was a good thing, since they could kill you in an instant, they were unrestrained, but these dairy cattle were all in the old-fashioned steel stanchions.
These animals are very strong, when you grab their tongue, they can throw around a big strong man like a rag doll, the saliva streams out of their mouth like a spigot turned on half way and they will get mad and beat their head against the stanchion until the blood is flowing. Needless to say it was a messy job. I did 22 head and was exhausted. I expected the dairy farmer to be upset because some of the cows looked roughed up in my opinion, but he was happy as a lark when it came time to be paid. He asked if I would do the entire herd and I asked how many he had. I don’t remember how many he had, but there must have been close to ten thousand. I told him no.
Measuring the methane emissions of dairy cattle is a logical place to begin, because they are in a more controlled situation. Beef cattle, like dairy cattle end up in a feed lot, but before the final phase, they are usually on large acreages eating grass. Dairy men and ranchers feed what is available in their geographical location. Price and availability dictates what they will be feeding. Everyone wants to feed the best feed, but the bottom line means making a profit.
Having the government dictate the feed process to minimize methane will bankrupt the rancher or dairy farmer when the prices of the required feed is high and the availability is low. The cost of dairy products and beef will skyrocket and our agri-markets will be devastated, but in the meantime, China will be churning out one new coal plant a month that will capable of powering a city the size of San Diego. The people of Beijing will still be wearing surgical masks to walk outside and their teeth will still have a black paste on them at the end of the day. Our swamps and ocean floors will still be emitting methane, but our cows and the rangers and farmers who own them will be strictly regulated by people who couldn’t castrate a calf or milk a cow if their life depended on it.
@Bill:
Yes. At some point the Collective will have to deal with vegan flatulence.
@Skookum:
Sounds like the Collective is attempting to emulate the stupidity of Venezuela’s very special brand of social justice.
Hey,
Look at it this way. If there is less swamp-gas, we will cut down on UFO sightings.
@Kraken: You and I can forego ice cream, butter, and yogurt, but kids need milk products. I like my steak once or twice a week, but when the price gets near that $50/lb, it might be time to quit. It’s an economic merry go round that gains momentum and speed with each time around, and what have we to gain?
They can crush the middle class, that’s for sure. And when the US and its dynamic economy is ground to a halt, perhaps China or Russia will see an opportunity to become the agricultural power house of the world and claim power through food rather than bullets, thanks to the efforts of our EPA.
@Skookum: Meat, cheese and a drink now and then is good for more than your soul.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/04/01/Vegans-and-Vegetarians-a-picture-of-ill-health
Nice, big longitudinal study that shows a surprising result…..
“Those who abstain from meat are “less healthy (in terms of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders), have a lower quality of life, and also require more medical treatment.”
See the whole thing.
@Nanny G: I have wondered about the alternative diets, since I was in college.
My girlfriend has been a vegetarian for most of her life. She is very health conscious and takes every kind of supplement I’ve ever heard of. She is sick all the time, and I am never sick, unless I get food poisoning on the road. It’s been very frustrating for her, especially since she is 15 years younger than me. Maybe, I need to trade her in on a newer model.
I don’t think it was me, but she eats steak once a week now. It was probably one of those health guru doctors she frequents. She needs something to boost her up or by the time she is my age, she will be in bad shape.
@inMAGICn: I think some of those guys have been smoking their socks and see more than the rest of us.
Belching and fart meters. What’s next, condoms on volcanoes.
EPA tested deadly pollutants on humans to push Obama admin’s agenda
http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/02/report-epa-tested-deadly-pollutants-on-humans-to-push-obama-admins-agenda/
It’s always great to hear some of the biggest polluters on earth tell everyone else what’s best for the environment…
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