This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was moving forward with an "endangerment finding" alleging that so-called greenhouse gases are a hazard to human health and the environment.  This finding is of grave concern to agriculture in general and cattlemen in specific because it sets the stage for regulation of emissions of carbon, methane and other greenhouse gasses (GHG's) under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and would give the EPA unprecedented control over every sector of the U.S. economy.

Congress has spent the better part of the year debating the issue via bills on "cap & trade" protocols where the government would cap a given industry's emissions of GHG's, but allow them to trade credits with other industry participants who don't emit as much.  As American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) policy specialist Paul Schlegel pointed out this week, this move by EPA comes at the height of a series of reports questioning the validity of climate change data, with documentation suggesting that numerous global researchers believed to have falsified or tampered with their own data to exacerbate the scope of the perceived crisis.

 “It’s premature to issue this kind of finding, especially given the recent controversy surrounding the scientific validity of alleged human contributions to climate change,” said Tamara Thies, NCBA chief environmental counsel.  “Regulation of greenhouse gases should be based on science, and it should be thoughtfully considered and voted on by Congress through a democratic process, not dictated by the EPA.”

Moreover, while those ruling doesn't itself regulate GHG's, it does place our country on the slippery slope More...

On the heels of last week's ruling by the EPA that greenhouse gases are a hazard to human health and the environment, leaders and policy makers from around the world gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark to debate and discuss how they might work together to reduce carbon emissions and the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere from various human activities, commerce, and industry.  Setting aside the recent revelations calling into question the validity of the underlying research data supporting the notion of "manmade" climate change, the Copenhagen summit brings one major problem to the forefront: current global climate mitigation efforts are intentionally geared to the detriment of the US farmer.

Several farmer leaders made the trek to Copenhagen to discuss and observe what happened in the various meetings and debates.  Representing grain producers at the summit, Ohio Corn Growers' Association Executive Director Dwayne Siekman reported on the week's events via his blog.  Siekman observed directly the application of my thesis: "From the onset it was obvious... that the participants of [the summit] believe the focus should be on farmers in developing countries that have struggled for decades in producing food and feed and criticizing Western Civilization agriculture for being too productive."  Furthermore, Siekman shared More...