Farmers and Ranchers hear caution and criticism of cap and trade

Washington Ag February 4, 2009 Washington’s heavy reliance on hydropower for electricity makes it one of the lower carbon emitting states in the country. Even so Washington Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers told the Pacific Northwest Farm Forum in Spokane Tuesday, that Washington could get penalized under a cap and trade system in climate change legislation Congress is expected to consider to reduce carbon emissions. Rodgers: “So where are we going to go to actually get more clean energy. It will be even harder because we are already at such a high level. And it means potentially that if the bill isn’t written right, we could be penalized. We could be forced to buy carbon credits at a much higher costs that will really increase our electricity costs.� Jim Sims, President and CEO of the Western Business Roundtable also spoke at the Farm Forum and explained why carbon credits would be costly under cap and trade. Sims: “And if everyone has to go buy credits because the technology to control green house gases is not available on the shelf, guess what the cost of credits does? It goes to the moon.� Sims said for Washington to compete for credits in a market like that would be a rip off. And because technology is lacking, Sims said we wouldn’t be reducing carbon emissions either, unless carbon emitters just shut down. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. And Sims says that would be a rip off for Washington if it had to compete with other states for carbon credits even though it