May 26: The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has commended Rep. Zack Space (D-OH) for demonstrating leadership and commitment to the agriculture industry during the House of Representatives Committee on climate change legislation, the Energy and Commerce mark-up of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act. During Committee proceedings on Thursday, Rep. Space offered two amendments that would be beneficial to corn growers and the entire agriculture industry.
“We appreciate the work of Congressman Zack Space and our other allies on the committee, for addressing issues important to our members,” NCGA President Bob Dickey said. “We believe the bill in its current form will significantly increase the cost of production to corn growers without the opportunity to generate revenue from greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The congressman’s amendments are an important step in the right direction and represent an improvement to the legislation.”
“While this bill is far from perfect, I am confident that our ongoing efforts to improve the bill will pay off in the end,” Rep. Space said. “These amendments were an important step in ensuring agriculture will have a role in a new energy economy. The chairman has committed to work with me on making this bill work for agriculture, and I intend to continue to make improvements to the legislation.”
The committee adopted Rep. Space’s first proposal, which will allow the EPA to recognize “early actors” – farmers who have been sequestering carbon as early as Jan. 1, 2001. This remains a priority for NCGA in order to ensure that growers who have been engaged in no-till or conservation tillage practices on their land in years prior to 2009 would not be excluded from participating in an offsets market under a cap-and-trade system.
In addition, Rep. Space offered a second amendment, which identified a list of agricultural projects to be qualified as eligible offsets under a cap-and-trade system.
NCGA urged members of the committee to include a list of eligible project types in the legislation. Corn growers can provide low-cost, real and verifiable carbon offsets that greatly lower the costs of a cap-and-trade system while achieving real GHG emissions reductions. After discussion among the committee, Rep. Space withdrew his amendment upon assurance from Chairman Waxman that this issue would be addressed.
“We thank Congressman Space for being a champion of agriculture by recognizing the important role of our industry during initial markup,” NCGA President Bob Dickey said. “However, NCGA remains concerned about the current proposal. We look forward to working with members of the House Agriculture Committee in the coming weeks to ensure the priorities of production agriculture are adequately addressed during consideration of this legislation.”