Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack addressed attendees at the National Farmers Union Convention in Rapid City, South Dakota Monday. He brought with him a report issued by USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber. That report contained the results of Glauber's full economic analysis showing that agriculture will benefit from energy and climate legislation if it includes a robust carbon offsets program and other helpful provisions. The costs of such legislation will be modest while returns from offsets will increase over-time and result in positive net income for agriculture.
"In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, I strongly believe that energy and climate legislation should be structured to help farmers profit from new income opportunities and that an outcome that damages agriculture is not anyone's intent or interest," Vilsack said.
USDA also reported on the output of the FASOM model, a model developed by researchers at Texas A & M University that the Environmental Protection Agency has used as part of its efforts to study the impacts of climate legislation. Vilsack told the convention he doesn't believe the results related to afforestation forecast by the FASOM model are necessarily an accurate depiction of the impacts of climate legislation.
Powered by iNet Solutions Group ©2011 All Rights Reserved.