Senate climate bill disappoints farm interests

After reviewing the climate bill proposed by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., farm interests have voiced their concern about provisions from the House bill that were left out of the Senate proposal. "Those provisions are intended to ensure that growers can earn credits for carbon-storing practices, including reduced tillage," Phillip Brasher of The Des Moines Register reports, adding that House-passed provisions protecting ethanol and biodiesel industries from carbon-reduction standards are also missing.

Rick Krause, who follows climate policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation, calls the Senate bill a "step-back," and the National Farmers Union says it fails to address its core principles on the issue of carbon credits. Farm-state Democrats have shown support for farm provisions, including Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow's and Montana Sen. Max Baucus' draft that would allow farmers to get credits for plowing land less. Energy analyst Kevin Book said the Senate bill is meant to be "an initial negotiating position well to the left" of where Congress will eventually wind up. (Read more)

Iowa Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin, who has stepped down as the Senate Agriculture Committee chairman to head the Health Committee, told Dan Looker of Agriculture Online: "We've got a bunch of votes on the Ag Committee and they need our votes to get this passed." Most Washington insiders agree the bill is a starting point, Looker reports, and some of their concerns may be fixed as it moves through the Senate. (Read more)

The farm industry's disdain comes as President Obama's top climate and energy official has conceded that there is virtually no chance Congress will have a bill ready before global climate treaty negotiations begin in December, Andrew C. Revkin of The New York Times reports. “Obviously we’d like to be through the process — that’s not going to happen,” Carol M. Browner said at a conference on politics and history organized by The Atlantic. “I think we would all agree the likelihood you would have a bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we would go in early December is not likely.” (Read more)