On to the Senate for climate change bill
Farm and Ranch July 6, 2009 Senators return from their 4th of July Holiday break today and may quickly get to work on climate change legislation. The National Association of Wheat Growers says the House passed climate change bill could be taken up by the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee as early as tomorrow. Mark Gaede, NAWG Director of Governmental Affairs for Environmental Policy, says the handling of this legislation will be different than with Lieberman-Warner last year. Gaede: “There are probably going to be at least a couple of other committees that have an active role in development of the legislation. It is not just going to be Environmental and Public Works Committee. It‘s mostly likely going to be the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and hopefully the Senate Agriculture Committee.” Gaede explains what NAWG will be trying to do as the climate legislation moves through the Senate. Gaede: “For one thing hold on to what we have been able to get in the House, which is by no means a foregone conclusion. But also to kind of fine tune some of these issues that you have mentioned like who is considered an early actor, what is considered to be additional, what is considered to be a baseline and that all revolves around dates like 2001 and 2009, who does the risk of reversal apply to? Some of those kind of things.” The House passed bill did include agriculture in a carbon offset program run by the USDA. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ?
