NAWG will work to improve climate bill in Senate
Farm and Ranch June 30, 2009 “This is not perfect legislation, but legislation rarely is.” That’s how National Association of Wheat Growers President Karl Scronce of Oregon described the climate change bill NAWG supported and the U.S. House narrowly passed late last week. The American Clean Energy Security Act allows an agricultural offset program, and most importantly says Mark Gaede, NAWG Director of Government Affairs for Environmental Policy, is that the USDA, not EPA will oversee it. Gaede: “USDA has both the infrastructure on the ground. USDA has been measuring soil carbon for about 100 years. I mean it is not like it is new science to them. They have the ability to do it. They have the scientific credibility to do it, and we make a very strong argument that they ought to be in charge of running any kind of program.” Farming practices initiated prior to January 1st of 2001 will generally not be considered to have sequestered additional carbon but Gaede says; Gaede: “At the last minute we were also able to get some language in that provides about a billion dollars for those who would not otherwise be able to participate in the offset credit market, to get some assistance to make sure they would not reverse the good things that they were doing otherwise, even if they had undertaken them prior to January of 2001. So that is fairly significant and is something we are going to continue to work on.” Gaede says holding on to what the House did for ag is not a foregone conclusion in the Senate. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ? ?
