The Ag Deal & The Climate Bill

I've posted links here to many articles about the deals cut to get the climate bill passed in the House.

One of the deals made was by reps from agricultural districts, and Steve Pearlstein at the Washington Post is not too happy about it. He writes:

But, for farmers, it wasn't enough to get a free pass on carbon emissions. They are unhappy that the effect of the caps and pollution permits will be to raise the price of their fuel, fertilizer and electricity. No matter that other Americans will suffer similar effects. In the mind of the entitled American farmer, any increase in costs or reduction in revenue -- whether from natural causes, market forces or government regulation -- must be compensated for by the government.

So farmers demanded that they be allowed to earn some extra cash by reducing the carbon footprint on their farms and selling these "offsets" to the factories and power plants unlucky enough to be subject to the carbon-cap regime. They want to be paid extra if they change the feedstock to cut down on cow burps and farts. Or if they use the no-till method for planting seeds, which doesn't release the carbon trapped in the soil. Or if they put in devices to trap the methane released from animal poop.

And they demanded to be paid not just if they do these things in the future, but also if they did them last year or the year before. They demanded the payments even if they are already getting a check from the government to do the same things as part of some other conservation program. And perhaps most notably, they demanded that the job of supervising this offset program be shifted from the Environmental Protection Agency, whose focus would actually be ensuring that the reductions are real, to the Department of Agriculture, which sees its mission as preserving, protecting and defending American farm subsidies.

He goes on to say "Elmer" also cut a deal on an ethanol issue, and then farm groups, such as the Farm Bureau still had the audacity to oppose the bill. He closes by saying the next time ag comes to DC for emergency drought aid, they should be told "to go pound sand."

You see, no one except the Politically Superior Ones, or those they have annointed, are supposed to exercise political power. All you "Elmers" should get ready to "pound sand" (unless, of course, there are turtle eggs nearby).

HT: Reason