Thursday, January 27, 2011

"Cowed" By Regulations

Have you ever wondered what big oil and dairy farms might have in common? Neither have I.

When it comes to regulatory practices, it seems they have quite a lot! According to The Wall Street Journal , the EPA is demanding dairy producers conform to something called the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure program. The name alone sounds expensive, doesn't it? Actually it more aptly applies to oil and natural gas operations close to bodies of water. This I can understand.

What does it have to do with dairies? Well, it seems the EPA has discovered milk contains animal fat, a non-petroleum oil. Therefore they must prepare and implement an emergency management plan which is to include the training of first responders, probably farm hands, in clean up protocol plus build containment facilities.

I expect we're going to have a lot of dairy farmers crying over spilled milk! It adds insult to injury considering the requirements they already face to mitigate their cow's methane production!

Does it make you wonder how much milk must be spilled to become an environmental threat?

Mr. Obama made light of redundant regulations coming from a multitude of agencies concerning the salmon industry during his State of the Union speech. He didn't mention just what those regulations might be. If he doesn't know, he should. The EPA is also one of his.

At least when you see the price of a gallon of milk matching the price of a gallon of gas, you'll know why. Government regulation.

Not to mention the poor cows. How is the farmer to afford to feed them? Beef is bad for you. Milk is an environmental hazard. The lowly cow may be the first species ever to become extinct due to government regulation.

Watch out sheep. There is oil in your wool! And pigs! Talk about oily fat! Ham, bacon...don't you dare send drippings from your cooking to the land fill! It could leach into ground water.

Funny, we actually pay people to come up with this stuff. Stick a fancy word on a dumb idea, like "regulation", and suddenly it's sacrosanct!

As the article says, you can't make this stuff up. Yet...someone, in our government, did!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They have been "making it up" for the farmers for a century. It is and has been all about keeping their prices up.

Margie's Musings said...

Don't get me started on the farm bill. Most of that money goes to rich corporate farmers.