Carbon Offset Program Won’t Offset Farmers’ Lost Income from Cap and Trade
Nicolas Loris /
I will go along with this, even though I am somewhat skeptical, if I can be convinced that this is going to work, that it’s practical, that it makes sense. That’s where I am coming from. I am not carrying water for anybody, I’m just trying to make sense out of this.”
The “this” Representative Collin Peterson, House Agriculture Committee chairman, is referring to is cap and trade, with the Waxman-Markey bill currently making its way through the House. It’s something Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi recently called “preposterously convoluted.” Congressman Peterson has a right to be skeptical because this is true especially for farmers.
Farmers use a lot of electricity, a lot of diesel fuel, and a lot of natural gas-derived chemicals and fertilizers to grow crops and maintain their farms. So it shouldn’t be surprising that a cap and trade program that artificially drives up the cost of energy will unfavorably affect farmers. What may be surprising is how unfavorable these effects are, causing expected farm income to drop $8 billion in 2012, $25 billion in 2024, and over $50 billion in 2035. These are decreases of 28%, 60% and 94%, respectively.