Washington State is considering a bill that would impose a new tax on dairy farmers and beef producers for their animal’s offensive emissions. House Bill 1630, filed by several Democrat members in the Washington state Legislature, might be the first U.S. state to tax cow flatulence.
The bill was filed January 27, 2025, and was referred to Washington’s House Environment and Energy Committee.
If passed, HB 1630 requires dairy farms and feedlots to report their methane emissions annually beginning next year. Sec. 1 of the bill states that “The legislature finds that methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and that Washington continues to experience the dangerous impacts of climate change from greenhouse gas emissions, including devastating fires, drought conditions, and record-breaking summer temperatures.”
This is exactly Biden’s 30×30 climate agenda. And apparently Washington state Democrats want to do the same thing to force dairy farmers and feedlots to report the total metric tons of methane emitted annually.
Tie this to another bill passed by the Washington Legislature in 2021, called the “Climate Commitment Act,” that requires businesses emitting more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide to be designated a “major emitter” and subject to a tax.
Republican State Representative Joe Schmick said: “You’re asking the growers to pay more taxes, (deal with) more regulation, in a time when you have record low commodity prices and their costs are astronomical…It’s just wrong.”
HB 1630 follows Denmark’s approval of a similar law last November 2024. Starting in 2030, Danish farmers will pay approximately $43 for every ton of carbon dioxide emitted and that will increase to $106 per ton in 2035. The average farm in Denmark emits about 5.6 tons annually.
Go to American Stewards’ story to read what is happening to the Danish farmers.
This will possibly be the first state in the nation to impose this type of regulation and tax on farmers and feedlots. However, the Biden Administration set all of this in motion when they changed the purpose for USDA conservation programs under the Inflation Reduction Act to prioritize mitigating livestock emissions.
Keep watch in your state to make sure a similar bill is not filed.
