Farmers whose cows fart too much to be taxed under Washington Dems’ new proposal

House Bill 1630 would require feedlots and dairy farms to report the annual metric tons of methane emitted by cows in the preceding calendar year. If the methane exceeds CO2 limits, those facilities could become regulated under the state’s controversial Climate Commitment Act, the same law that spiked gas prices in Washington state.

Colfax Republican Representative Joe Schmick called the bill an unreasonable attack on agriculture and told Washington House Republican Radio, “If they find that there was sufficient methane equivalent to 25,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, these facilities would likely come under the Climate Commitment Act as covered entities.” Schmick added, “You’re asking the growers to pay more taxes, more regulation, in a time when you have record low commodity prices and their costs are astronomical right now. It’s just wrong!”

The cow methane bill is awaiting a public hearing in the House Environment and Energy Committee. It was primarily sponsored by Rep. Lisa Parshley, who was joined by her fellow Democratic Reps. Davina Duerr, Joe Fitzgibbon, Liz Berry, Alex Ramel, Julia Reed, Cindy Ryu, and Natasha Hill.

Meanwhile, farmers are already suffering under onerous taxes passed by the Democrats in their efforts to combat climate change.

The Washington Farm Bureau told Fox 13 that the Climate Commitment Act, passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature in 2021, disproportionately impacts small farms. Democratic lawmakers falsely claim they exempted farmers from the extra costs, but the complicated system was not streamlined as promised, and farmers are being incorrectly charged.

Bre Elsey, with the Washington Farm Bureau, told the outlet, "The Climate Commitment Act is definitely contributing to farm loss,” adding that the Department of Ecology was supposed to have a system to exempt farmers from the added costs.

Though larger farms that purchase fuel from wholesale suppliers are now receiving those exemptions as of last year, many middle- and small-sized operations are not. Elsey said, "Some of our smallest farmers purchase their fuel at retail locations, and, currently, there is no mechanism to apply the exemption at retail locations.”

The Department of Ecology told Fox 13, "The remaining challenges we’re aware of come from off-farm sales — such as at retail gas stations or card-check stations. it’s more difficult to track who is buying fuel and for what purpose at those locations, and so there may be difficulties in applying the exemptions…"

Rep. Chris Corry told the outlet, “If you’ve seen the Spider-Man meme — [it's] a lot of agencies pointing at the other agencies saying, ‘That’s not our job.’ We were very clear that it was [the Department of] Ecology’s job, they are supposed to implement those exemptions.”