Getting On With It
Getting On With It. I’m Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report.
New legislation was just introduced by Sens. Barbara Boxer of
SHOEMAKER: You know it’s time that we really start to take seriously the impact of our pollution and how we’ve been wasting fossil fuels over the years and moving toward a clean energy future is so important in many ways. Some people have called it the re-industrialization of
Shoemaker says this would help rebuild new industries.
SHOEMAKER: New products and systems built; factories built; new ways to produce energy, a real re-birth of our country and it’s time that Congress got serious about it and tried to get something through. You know we have a lot of entrenched interests defending the industries that they are currently in and it’s hard to break through that and achieve change so I think it’s real important that people take this seriously and see the potential that it offers.
A big potential according to Shoemaker will be in the public’s pocketbook and of course rising fuel prices have already gotten our wallets attention. He sees there being a big benefit to ag.
SHOEMAKER: I think particularly agriculture is a big beneficiary of this potentially and I hope that people who farm land see those benefits down the pike. I think already with wind turbines a lot of people have benefitted and I think also farmers growing crops have benefitted a lot from the first generation of biofuels and that I think has boosted the farm economy across the country.
The Democrats version will obviously come under close scrutiny and ultimately they will have to come together with the House to hammer out a final deal but Shoemaker says it is time to make something happen.
SHOEMAKER: This legislation in particular which deals with carbon cap and trade system start to put a price on carbon, that brings another advantage to landowners in that if they adopt different practices which in the end saves them money they can also get some value for the carbon that they capture.
For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
