The Senate Agriculture Committee will vote on Thursday, Earth Day, on a retooled bill that would make it easier for farmers and foresters to earn money for locking carbon into the soil and trees, said chairwoman Debbie Stabenow. A sponsor of the legislation, Stabenow said language was strengthened to assure farmers, rather than investors or middlemen, receive the revenue for climate mitigation.
“We want to make sure the benefit goes to the producers,” said Stabenow during a news conference to announce re-introduction of the bipartisan Growing Climate Solutions Act. It has 34 sponsors, a third of the Senate and evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. A companion bill with bipartisan backing will be filed in the House.
“We will move it as quickly as possible,” said Stabenow, who anticipated committee approval. Ten of the 22 senators on the panel are sonsors. The bill might advance on its own or be wrapped into an infrastructure bill, she said. “We’ll just look for the best opportunity.”
Under the legislation, USDA would become a “one-stop shop” for information about practices that sequester carbon or reduce greenhouse gases. The USDA also would certify consultants to work with farmers to design and implement projects that produce carbon credits and cerify independent agents who would verify the success of the projects.
At present, farmers face a welter of carbon contracts with different soil management methods and different pricing systems, said president Zippy Duvall of the American Farm Bureau Federation, which backs the Growing Climate Solutions bill.
Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the Agriculture Committee, has expressed concern over the structure of carbon markets. Consultancy fees and commissions on contracts may eat deeply into returns to the farmer, he has said. Boozman is a sponsor of the re-introduced bill.
The biggest points of skepticism about carbon markets in the agricultural community are the reliability of information that is being offered and the payments, which run around $20 per ton of carbon, according to a “Pulse” poll by Farm Journal. It posed the question, “What is the biggest reason why you would not participate in a carbon market?” Out of 736 responses, 63 percent chose “I need more information I can trust” and 15 percent were “payment not worth the effort.”
“We need bold action from Congress that will create real climate solutions that promote sustainable agriculture and an end to fossil fuels,” said the consumer group Food and Water Watch. “The Growing Climate Solutions Act presents woefully inadequate solutions that masquerade as climate action.”