A leisurely drive down highway 99 or interstate 5 tells you it’s there. The air is acrid with cow farts near big dairy feedlots. Tons and tons of bovine gas hangs in the air. California’s crack team of environmental experts say it’s killing us.
Moving to expand California’s already-sweeping efforts to blunt climate change, lawmakers on Tuesday sent Gov. Jerry Brown legislation to limit methane from sources like landfills and dairies.
Much of the debate around climate change policies has focused on the climate-altering effects of burning petroleum. But gases known as “short-lived climate pollutants,” like methane, can have powerful effects even as they dissipate relatively quickly.
Under Senate Bill 1383, the Air Resources Board would have a mandate to cut such emissions by 40 percent. As with other climate bills, the measure had to scale a wall of resistance from oil industry groups and business associations.
But SB 1383 squeaked past the finish line with Brown himself making calls to members, marking the final climate fight of a session filled with them.
Members speaking in support of the measure framed it as a public health bill that would lengthen lives and combat ailments like asthma.
Landfills and dairy producers would bear much of the responsibility for making such reduction.
Raising dairy livestock also involves a fair amount of gas, some of it from belching and farting cows, and the measure would compel dairies to reduce the methane they produce by 40 percent as of 2030.
Source: The Sacramento Bee
www.CalNews.com 