In Washington, cap-and-trade legislation is on the back burner. But it remains on the minds of Central Texas farmers, many of whom say a South Plains feedlot would pass a smell test before the current proposals would.

Some agriculture groups and environmentalists are happy with the bills, which they say offer a cost-effective way to cut the emission of atmosphere-warming greenhouse gases and promote clean energy sources.

Others, including many farmers, think cap-and-trade would pile on costs, making it harder to make a profit and driving up food prices for the consumer while doing nothing to slow global warming.

One farmer with a 4,500-acre spread outside McGregor said he’s afraid of extra cost when some question whether greenhouse-gas-induced warming exists.

“It’s a lot of regulation, and I’m not sure the science is proven,” said Kevin Huffman, who farms wheat, corn and cattle.

Scientists warn that emissions of certain gases, especially carbon dioxide and methane, are causing the atmosphere to trap heat and gradually heat up — with potentially catastrophic results. Cap-and-trade policies are meant to slow emissions by placing a cap on the amount of the gases the industries can emit. The trade part involves industries that produce less gases than their limit selling credits through carbon exchanges to other industries that are exceeding their limits. The method has been used in some regions of the United States on a regional basis to control acid rain. And a carbon cap-and-trade system is in place in Europe.

A bill has passed in the U.S. House, and now a similar bill is moving slowly through the Senate legislative mill.

Congress focusing elsewhere

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, who voted against the House bill, said the Senate bill is not a priority in Congress right now in light of more pressing issues such as the economy and health care. There is significant opposition, and many doubt the viability of the legislation, he said.

In many news reports, experts are saying cap-and-trade’s success is even more doubtful with the election of Scott Brown to the late Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat last week, adding a critical Republican vote to Senate actions.

The Texas Farm Bureau is among groups that take issue with cap-and-trade. Bureau legislative director Steve Pringle said nobody should write off cap-and-trade as dead, and that the slow pace of the legislation means a resolution will be a long time in coming.

Edwards said there are many problems he had with the House bill. Cap-and-trade would drive up the cost of producing fertilizer. And farmers could pay for additional regulation of tillage practices, Edwards said.

Feedlots and dairies could see increased regulation, such as rules on emissions on methane produced by livestock, he said. Farmers may contribute to driving up food prices by going to tree farming in search of lucrative carbon sequestration credits, he said.

Edwards said he can support energy bills pushing for the development of nuclear and natural gas energy sources. Nuclear does not produce greenhouse gases and natural gas produces much less in emissions than coal.

Some supporters

Although many in Texas agriculture oppose cap-and-trade, some agricultural groups, such as The American Corn Growers Association, support cap-and-trade ideas. According to information from the Corn Growers Web site, farmers will be able to make money by trading emissions permits and through lucrative credits from sequestering carbon with carbon-dioxide-absorbing crops. 

Cap-and-trade will expand farm production markets in an economy with a huge energy demand, Pam Horwitz, executive director of the Corn Growers. By protecting the environment, farmers are better able to meet world food needs, she said.

Horwitz said that while some call into question the science behind global warming, the Corn Growers’ stance is that the scientists are correct and that agriculture should play a part in stopping it.

“We are calling on farmers to believe that we should rely on the scientists,” she said. 

Environment Texas, an Austin-based environmental group, thinks farmers should be behind cap-and-trade, said McCall John- son, the group’s clean energy advocate.

“Farmers have the most to lose from global warming,” Johnson said in an e-mail response to the Tribune-Herald. “American farmers have already lost billions of dollars to drought, and conditions are only expected to get worse as global warming persists.”

U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Edward Markey, D-Mass., sponsored the House bill on cap-and-trade.

A statement from Markey’s office said agriculture will benefit because cap-and-trade uses a free-market solution to make polluters pay and invest money in agricultural solutions and farming techniques that cut carbon pollution. While consumers and farmers spend a billion dollars daily for foreign oil for cars and for fertilizer, the House bill would stop the transfer of wealth and invest money in renewable energy, efficient agriculture and high-mileage vehicles, the statement said. The price of fertilizer would drop as a result, the statement said.  

Push for new technology

Part of the idea in cap-and-trade is that it would push industries, including farmers, to go for new energy sources and greener equipment.

In farming, such alternatives have yet to be developed, Pringle said in speaking against cap-and- trade.

“Our argument is we can’t go to alternative forms of energy until there are alternatives,” Pringle said.

Global warming must be addressed consistently around the planet for cap-and-trade to work, and that’s currently not the case, Pringle said.

“If we do something and the Chinese and India don’t, then there is not going to be any difference,” he said.

John Perryman, who farms on 2,600 acres in Moody, doesn’t like the regulation it could put on farmers. He thinks farmers are already known for striving for efficiency, thereby cutting emissions.

“It’s just another government agency regulating what we do,” Perryman said.

Perryman started farming in 1974. Through the decades, with better engines and better methods, fuel consumption and the output of farm emissions have been drastically reduced, he said. Perryman said fuel use has been cut by at least one-third since he began farming.

He also questions global warming science, including whether a perceived rise in global temperatures is the result of human activities.

Wes Sims farms near Sweetwater and is president of the Waco-based Texas Farmers Union. Sims said he thinks global warming is real and that it is a product of human activities. Still, the current cap-and-trade bill and the system of exchanges is not the right move, he said.

“We’ve not been in support of that,” he said.

When something comes out of Congress that’s lucrative for farmers, the Farmers Union will support it, Sims said.

“It has to be financially beneficial for the farmer, but it must reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere,” Sims said. “I believe Congress will have to come up with something better.”

bteeter@wacotrib.com

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