California,  Government,  Politics

California Happy Cow FLAP: Gross Polluters?

Air district says bovines on the region’s booming dairy farms are the biggest single source of smog-forming gases. The industry takes issue.

The Los Angeles Times has In San Joaquin Valley, Cows Pass Cars as Polluters.

California’s San Joaquin Valley for some time has had the dirtiest air in the country. Monday, officials said gases from ruminating dairy cows, not exhaust from cars, are the region’s biggest single source of a chief smog-forming pollutant.

Every year, the average dairy cow produces 19.3 pounds of gases, called volatile organic compounds, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District said. Those gases react with other pollutants to form ground-level ozone, or smog.

With 2.5 million dairy cows — roughly one of every five in the country — emissions of almost 20 pounds per cow mean that cattle in the San Joaquin Valley produce more organic compounds than are generated by either cars or trucks or pesticides, the air district said. The finding will serve as the basis for strict air-quality regulations on the region’s booming dairy industry.

But, wait….. does California now want to regulate the California Dairy Industry into RUINATION?

The dairy industry will be forced to invest millions of dollars in expensive pollution-control technology in feedlots and waste lagoons, and may even have to consider altering animals’ diets to meet the region’s planned air-quality regulations. Not surprisingly, industry officials challenged the estimate as scientifically unsound.

“Science is supposed to guide this regulation, not fairy dust,” said Michael Marsh, chief executive officer of Western United Dairymen, a lobbying group that said it was considering a lawsuit to block regulations based on the new finding. “It’s impossible to capture emissions that scientists can’t even detect.”

SKEPTIC: Frank Mitloehner on the UC Davis campus. “If you closed all the dairies in California tomorrow, you would not see much of an impact on ozone formation,” he said.

Good Grief, it sounds like another protracted battle in the courts.

Cow burps and farts – the bureaucratic regulators and big government folks never cease to amaze me.

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Local Liberty has The Origins of Smog: Cows vs. Cars.

They ridiculed Reagan for saying trees cause pollution (the Smoky Mountains). But now the highly respected LA Times comes forth with a report on the pollution caused by cow flattulence (Miguel Bustillo).

The consequences: “The San Joaquin Valley, Houston and Los Angeles have the three worst air-pollution problems in America.” This is an old story, but now we have the science and the prestigious imprimatur of the LA Times to confirm ancient anecdotes. Of course the regulators are closing in: “Officials said they may also require dairies to alter the food cows eat in order to reduce flatulence. New dairies will be required to use the best available equipment to curtail emissions. Existing dairies will face less-restrictive requirements, but will also be forced to make changes to reduce cow gases.”

The search for a bovine Beano will draw the attention of America’s best agricultural scientists. Maybe the Governor will support a bond measure to subsidize such research, as he did, to draw this gassy discussion to a somber close, for stem cells.

Steve Hayward on this at The Corner.

Exactly!

And the Indepundit has Bovine Flatulence.