In Clampdown on U.S. Methane Emissions, Belching Cattle Get a Pass

The Biden administration is taking aggressive steps to curb the energy industry’s methane emissions, tightening pipeline regulations and spending billions of dollars to clean up abandoned coal mines and other sources of the potent greenhouse gas.

Agriculture, just as big a source of methane, isn’t getting the same tough treatment.

The Biden administration said it would spend more money to research cattle diets and expand gas-capturing manure-disposal systems for farmers to voluntarily reduce methane emissions, after supporting more than $200 million in such projects last year.

But it hasn’t proposed any new...