Vilsack: Saving the Planet One Cow at a Time

At least he isn’t talking about taxing cow flatulence, but our former governor, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack says that cow power can save the planet:

The United States is counting on cows to help reduce its carbon footprint.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a plan Tuesday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the dairy industry 25 percent by 2020, mostly by convincing farmers to capture the methane from cow manure that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere.

Agriculture accounts for about 7 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

A big part of the plan includes convince more farmers to purchase anaerobic digesters that essentially convert cow manure into electricity. The problem is that until now only 2 percent of dairy farmers who are good candidates for the technology are using it.

Maybe only 2% is using the technology because it is expensive, or they don’t buy into the climate change crap (pun intended).  But let’s not let economic sense get in the way of creating a policy.  Perhaps our government should stay out of the cow manure business.  Well, by all means, let’s throw cows and the kitchen sink at a problem that has been overstated and has become an international joke.  Circle the wagons, circle the wagons… and blame those blasted bovine and their dangerous chips!