The Threat of Carbon Taxes

The Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward in an effort to impose tough limits on carbon emissions that will have a huge effect on farmers and power plants. Already, food prices have spiked thanks to the fact that a huge chunk of our corn crop goes toward ethanol production instead of toward food production. But now, the EPA is looking to impose carbon taxes that will make farmers’ fuel and electricity costs go up, along with the rest of the country. The goal is simple: make the oil, coal, and natural gas that power most of our top electrical power plants just as expensive as the “green” alternative such as wind turbines and solar panels.

The other blow to the farmers will be the operating permits. The EPA plans to require farmers to pay for operating permits for any livestock operation that emits more than 100 tons of greenhouse gases per year. According to the EPA, one cow emits around 4 tons of greenhouse gases (methane) per year. Yes, farmers will be taxed for their livestock farting. At 4 tons per cow, it only takes 25 cattle for a farmer to fall over the EPAs limit and be forced to pay for operating permits, meaning that nine out of ten livestock farmers are expected to be over the limit. The EPA itself gave an estimate that the new operating permits will cost farmers $866 million per year, and you can be sure that is a low estimate. This boils down to taxpayers paying this extra billion dollars in the form of higher food and energy costs.  

If these proposed carbon taxes become a reality, you can bet they will lead the way for other forms of carbon and emissions taxing. At this rate, it won’t be long before gasoline powered vehicles are taxed per mile.

last time modified: July 15, 2011, 4:35 a.m.