NORWICH – Taxing cows for their methane-producing belches is absurd, says U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, but that’s just what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering with a new Clean Air Act regulation.

A proposal would tax dairy cows $175 and beef cows $87.50 per year per cow for their greenhouse-gas emissions. In Chenango County, with its estimated 19,000 dairy cows, farmers would have to fork over more than $3 million in fees and risk going out of business.

“This is in the category of: ‘You can’t believe this!’” the senator said in a conference call to upstate media representatives on Tuesday.

In a preemptive move to ensure a “cow tax” is never proposed, Schumer called on the EPA to immediately quash any existing plans to move forward with the rule. “We cannot allow for even a baby step forward to be taken on this idea,” he said.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts, et al v EPA that the EPA cannot categorically refuse to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. On July 30, 2008, in response to this, the EPA began the process of considering regulations by issuing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking. Included in the advanced notice was a discussion of potentially requiring farmers to purchase permits for the methane contained in waste gas released by dairy cows, beef cattle and other livestock.