News

NCGA opposes House cap and trade

The National Corn Growers Association is officially “off the fence” on cap and trade–the House version, anyway. 

In a Wednesday morning conference call with the media, NCGA announced its opposition to H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act passed by the House in June 2009.  

NCGA bases its opposition on a recently completed economic analysis by Informa Economics. That analysis indicates that every corn grower in the country would experience increased costs of production resulting from the bill.   And NCGA president Darrin Ihnen of Hurley, South Dakota, says that, while the legislation offers opportunities to produce carbon offsets, the study demonstrates that not all growers would be able to participate. 

“Most areas of the country, including the Northern Plains where I’m at, would be a net loser—just because we can’t adopt a continuous no-till like the bill has stated,” Ihnen says, “and it would, in turn, affect our ability to produce and be efficient and use our land as efficiently as we can.” 

However, Ihnen says that NCGA still remains neutral on cap and trade as a policy issue.  And he says the group will continue to work with the U.S. Senate to craft legislation that benefits agriculture. 

“We think the bill should be more along the lines of energy conservation, and more use of renewable fuels,” he says, “That would have a true effect on climate, if that’s really the goal here—versus, as our study looks at, just (coming) at the expense of agriculture and downsizing American agriculture.” 

NCGA also announced that it has joined with several other ag groups in urging Congress to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions. 

AUDIO: NCGA news conference (22 min MP3)

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published.


 

Stay Up to Date

Subscribe for our newsletter today and receive relevant news straight to your inbox!