This is the response I received this morning from Jeremy Fuchs of the Texas and Southwest Catttle Raisers Association. These guys have been most responsive to my questions and were the ones who jumped to investigate the theft of my windmill. It took OCA 8 weeks to respond...
Mr. Bearden,
Kaleb passed along your email exchange to me yesterday evening, as I handle our tax policy. I gave him some info too, so apologies if this is duplicative and he's already given you the same information.
During the markup, Rep. Lesko offered an amendment reiterating that this provision would not apply for ag as an attempt to get the Democrats on the record on this issue. It was rejected in a party-line vote, but
fortunately, the amendment was a clarifying amendment. While there is a section of the reconciliation measure that would require the EPA to impose a fee on certain facilities that produce methane it applies only to oil and gas production, not agriculture. That is unchanged by the failure of the amendment.
Of course you are correct, it is a very scary proposition, and one that we will vehemently oppose. We are watching the situation in Washington very closely to ensure Ag is not included in any other such proposals.
Best,
Jeremy
Rep Charles Schumer introduced a bill to exempt the NY farmers from the $86/head EPA cattle methane Fee a day ago. I am still looking to find this..