PLEASE OPPOSE S. 1219 Please Don't Give Tax Breaks to factory farms to burn their filthy Cow & Hog Waste. S. 1219 was introduced by Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley on July 23, 2001. S. 1219 is to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to include swine and bovine waste as a renewable energy resource for the renewable electricity production credit, and for other purposes. (To review the bill : http://thomas.loc.gov , then enter bill number: S 1219 ) The bill amends the "Section 45" renewable energy electricity production income tax credit to include manure from hogs and cattle as "renewable energy sources". Section 45 was originally intended to only provide incentives for traditional renewable energy, such as wind power. But a 1999 law included chicken feces as an eligible fuel to generate electricity. The chicken provision, however, is set to expire in January 2002. Section 45 provides a tax credit of 1.7 cents for every kilowatt hour of electricity produced (this amount increases each year with inflation). Grassley's bill will include hog and cattle manure (but not chickens) as a qualifying fuel for the credit from 2002 through 2007. The tax credit would reduce income taxes for hog and cattle factories by hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Please let's write to the Senators to stop tax credit to encourage the cruel and extreme polluted factory farms. Thanks so much for your kindness and important help. WHAT YOU CAN DO : We enclosed the following Sample Letter and all of the important Contact information for you to help. SAMPLE LETTER : Please put your Name, Address at the beginning and the end of your letter. You may write your own letter or modify our letter if you wish. FROM : Your Name, Your Address, U.S. Constituents. Subject : PLEASE OPPOSE S. 1219 . Please DO NOT give Tax Breaks to Burn Filthy Cow & Hog Waste! Dear Senator (name): I am urging you to OPPOSE S.1219 . S. 1219 is a bill which was proposed by Senator Charles Grassley to provide tax credits for electricity produced from hog and cow manure and other related waste. We oppose this legislation because incinerating the waste is bad for public health and the environment. Allowing hog and cattle farms to burn their waste will encourage increased production at factory farms, where animals are raised in large warehouses and produce waste in excess of what can be absorbed by the land. Tax dollars should not be used to subsidize factory farm pollution when money is needed to develop Non-Polluting, renewable energy sources like Wind and Solar. S. 1219 would amend the "Section 45" renewable energy electricity production income tax credit to include manure from hogs and cattle as "renewable energy sources." Section 45 was originally intended to only provide incentives for traditional renewable energy, such as Wind power. A 1999 law included chicken feces as an eligible fuel to generate electricity, but that provision is set to expire in January 2002. Senator Grassley's bill will classify hog and cattle manure (but not chicken) as a renewable fuel. Studies show that burning this animal waste is just as polluting as burning coal. Nitrogen oxides, hydrogen chloride and mercury emissions from burning manure equal that of burning coal, and sulfur dioxide emissions are nearly equal to that of coal. These pollutants are extremely hazardous for public health. Mercury is a neurotoxin which is especially damaging to children and can cause developmental disorders in fetuses. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain and can also impair breathing and aggravate existing respiratory diseases. Nitrogen oxides create acid rain and damage lung tissue, create ground-level ozone (a poison), and contribute to global warming. (see References # 1,2, 3, ) While we mourn the unspeakable tragedy in the World Trade Center, however, the cruelty to raise ten billions of "sentient" animals every year for "food" in USA is no less than the WTC tragedy. In animal agriculture, institutionalized massive animal cruelty which skins and dismembers millions of animals routinely every day for "food" while they are fully conscious is a common scene in thousands of slaughterhouses across the United States. (see Reference # 4, 5, 6, 7,8 ) In 1999, 1.29 million, or 54%, of all U.S. deaths were attributed to diseases for which consumption of animal products represents a substantial risk factor. The most popular, deadly western diseases are Heart diseases, Cancers, Diabetes, Strokes which are mainly derived from long term consumption of high saturated fat and high cholesterol animal sources foods. ( see Reference # 9, 10,11 ) We will vote for any legislator who promotes healthy life style and prohibit the polluted, harmful, cruel factory farms. Rather than spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to the factory farms on this public health hazardous process to give tax breaks to burn filthy Cow & Hog Waste, money could more wisely be spent on clean renewable technologies like wind and solar. Please Vote "NO" on S.1219. Thank you for your kindness and consideration. Sincerely, Your Name, Your Address, U.S. Constituents. References : 1: http://www.factoryfarm.org/waste.html 2: http://www.factoryfarm.org/reports-waste.html 3: http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/factor/cons.asp 4: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60798-2001Apr9.ht ml 5: http://www.meat.org/holocaust.htm 6: http://www.hfa.org 7: http://www.meatstinks.com/VegKit/meetmeat.html 8: http://www.factoryfarming.com 9: http://www.vegsource.com/articles/meat_deaths99.htm 10: http://www.llu.edu/llu/vegetarian/redmeat.htm 11: http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/06/06292001/reu_vegeta rian_4414 5.asp (**** Letter Ends here **** ) =============================================== CONTACT INFORMATION : 1: First of all , please CALL all of the 22 Senators in the Finance Committee. Every vote counts ! POLITELY ask them to: a: OPPOSE S. 1219. b: Please Do Not encourage the cruel Factory farms. Please Do Not give them the tax breaks to burn filthy Cow & Hog Waste which is hazardous for public health. To get their phone number , please click the following site: Note: Senator Max Baucus is the Chairman of the Finance Committee: (Please call him first. ) http://politics.yahoo.com/politics/Congress/Senate/Committees/ Then click "Finance " , then click "Roster" . then click each name , you will see all of their phone/fax number. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2: Then it is important to give your message to the following US Senators by using our SAMPLE LETTER or write your own letter : Please Copy and Paste the following list into BCC field in your Email. Then put your other DIFFERENT email address in the TO field before you hit Send : Note: it must have a comma between addresses. Before you hit Send, please check everything correctly ! Please address to : Dear Senator , or : Dear Honorable Senator, [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], ------------------------------------------------------ 3: The following Senators do not have Email address. However, you can send email thru their web sites one by one. Please click each one of them to send your massage : http://www.senate.gov/~craig/webform.html http://murkowski.senate.gov/webmail.html http://cantwell.senate.gov/mailform.html http://miller.senate.gov/email.html http://crapo.senate.gov/email.htm http://grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm http://roberts.senate.gov/email.htm http://thomas.senate.gov/html/contact.html http://allard.senate.gov/contactme/index.cfm http://daschle.senate.gov/webform.htm http://baucus.senate.gov/EmailMax.htm http://wellstone.senate.gov/webform.html http://domenici.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm The following Senator does not have Email address nor Website either, please Fax/Call him : Senator Mark Dayton (D - MN) Tel: (202) 224-3244 , Fax (202) 228-2186 ------------------------------------------------------------ 4: If you have any problem to send your email by using the above list, then please send your message one by one thru the followining Senate Finance Committee's roster list site : http://politics.yahoo.com/politics/Congress/Senate/Committees/ Then click "Finance " , then click "Roster" . then click each name , then click "Send Email" (or click "Visit Website" if there is no personal email address) : @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ (References : http://www.gracepublicfund.org/docs/aa8-15.htm http://www.factoryfarm.org/waste.html ) If any question, you may contact GRACE: Tel: (212) 726-9161 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Thanks so much for your kindness, compassion and help. cc