Omaha World-Herald, July 30, 2008

by Joseph Morton

WASHINGTON -- Nebraska farmers and ranchers this week will receive checks worth nearly a half-million dollars through a carbon credit program run by the National Farmers Union.

The Farmers Union said Tuesday that it's paying a total of more than $5.8 million to more than 2,300 farmers and ranchers who use environmentally friendly practices such as no-till farming and rotational grazing to capture carbon dioxide.

Nebraska ranks fourth among participating states, with payments totaling $484,486, according to the Farmers Union. North Dakota, the first state to get into the program, is receiving more than $2.5 million.

The program rewards producers for being good stewards of the environment, said Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union.

"Agriculture can play an important part in offsetting greenhouse gases in our environment," Buis said.

Under the carbon credit program, farmers and ranchers who enroll acres receive a certain number of credits based on an agreement to use the environmentally friendly practices.

The idea is that those techniques help lock carbon away in the ground and keep it out of the atmosphere, where it could build up and contribute to the greenhouse effect.

After an independent third party certifies the acres enrolled in the program, the credits are sold on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Companies that produce carbon from their operations purchase the credits to offset their own pollution. An acre of grass can store 1 metric ton of carbon.

The companies want those credits to offset their emissions to show how environmentally conscious they are or because they are keeping an eye on possible mandatory "cap-and-trade" systems -- which would limit allowable carbon emissions and require purchase of credits to offset any additional pollution.

Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen said 221 Nebraska farmers will receive checks this week for 2006 and 2007 practices. Some farmers enrolled their entire farms, Hansen said.

The theory behind pollution credit trading programs has its critics, some of whom say that such systems are an undue financial burden on businesses and allow corporations to pollute elsewhere.

They also say it's difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether farmers supposedly locking carbon in the ground are really doing anything differently.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is one of the critics.

"It's sending money to people who may or may not be doing no-till practices in the first place," King said.