Idaho’s farm lobby is largely neutral on the proposed climate change bill that passed the House Friday.

They know it will raise farm costs for energy and overall energy costs. But it also will provide rural Idaho new revenue streams in alternative energy and carbon sequestration.

But here’s a big issue that is key to keeping Idaho’s agriculture community from fighting the legislation tooth and nail: It won’t force regulation of methane emissions from cows.

The Environmental Protection Agency says cow belching is a bigger contributor to global warming than coal mines, landfills and sewage treatment plants.

But in Idaho alone the estimated cost of regulation -- $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle according to the Farm Bureau – would be a serious hit on the economy. In 2008, Livestock cash receipts totaled $3.344 billion or 53 percent of total farm cash receipts in Idaho.

Methane from the nation's 170 million cattle, sheep and pigs produces one-quarter of the methane released in the U.S. each year, according to the EPA, the Associated Press reported.

The only tools available would be adjusting feed or reducing cattle numbers and that’s why EPA officials aren’t calling for regulation. But a lot of observers see the decision to avoid regulation as pure politics.

“Obama folded to the Big Ag lobby on one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions,” said the Western Watersheds Project spokesman Brian Ertz.