June 6, 2008

“Climate change bill not likely to advance today, but NCBA working to shape future legislation: THIES”

(Audio with Tamara McCann Thies (THEECE), director of environmental issues for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association)

A cloture vote is expected to fail this morning on Senate legislation entitled America’s Climate Change Security Act (S. 3036). This will mean the bill is unlikely to make any further progress in Congress this year. But the topic is almost certain to return in the next Congress.

Cattle producers could potentially benefit from a proposed program that would allow the agriculture industry to generate carbon credits for sale as offsets to regulated industries.  Such offsets could be generated by sequestering carbon in soils and trapping or reducing other greenhouse gas emissions. But in order for the legislation to be workable for agriculture, it will have to be better written than this year’s version. In the attached National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) audio clip, Tamara McCann Thies, NCBA director of environmental issues, explains some of the concerns the cattle industry has with the legislation as it presently stands in the Senate.

While the bill has most likely stalled for 2008, NCBA is working with other agricultural organizations to restore the list of agricultural offsets to the legislative language. These groups are also working on other ways to improve the bill, in preparation for next year.

Clip  #1:       :45        Out cue: “… over agricultural offsets.”