SEN. BOND CRITICAL OF `EMERGENCY' STIMULUS

WASHINGTON, D.C. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., doesn't think prevention of methane emissions from cows and subsidies for energy conservation efforts of Fortune 500 corporations are critical issues in need of immediate government attention.

Bond took issue Thursday with the Clinton administration's "Emergency Stimulus Package," which proposes, among other things, to spend $23.5 million on Environmental Protection Agency programs related to "corporate welfare and cow emissions."

Bond has proposed an amendment to the measure that would eliminate this "emergency" funding.

According to EPA documents, the programs in question "promote energy efficiency in the private sector and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

The EPA, through the corporate welfare program, provides training workshops, product information, technical support and a computer analysis on how a company's energy use can be reduced and made more efficient. The funding increase will create 45 new jobs at the EPA, and more than 750 corporations already have committed to the program.

But Bond said taxpayers shouldn't be required to subsidize Fortune 500 corporations' energy conservation efforts. "This does not create jobs. This is not an emergency," Bond added wryly.

With regard to cow methane emissions, the EPA has written: "Since methane has energy value, its emission to the air is equivalent to energy evaporating before use. Lack of motivation and know-how, as well as institutional obstacles, have prevented this resource from achieving effective utilization."

The EPA targets methane emissions from cows, pigs and other livestock as a lost energy source, and the program seeks to prevent its escape into the atmosphere.

"Apparently, some environmentalists believe that bovine methane emissions are a serious threat to the earth's ozone," Bond said. "The EPA has already given a federal grant of $210,000 to Washington State University to study cow belching."

The senator's reaction to the program in the Emergency Stimulus Package?: "Trying to prevent cow emissions is not EPA's responsibility. This does not create jobs. This is not an emergency situation."