Carbon credits

There is something natural going on across our rangelands and it could make some money. I’m Jeff Keane; I’ll be back right after this with some comments. The combination of soil and plants in our nation’s crop and rangelands perform the natural act of carbon sequestration. The good news is someone or some company that releases carbon into the atmosphere would like to pay owners of crop and rangelands for the use of that natural process to offset their production of carbon dioxide. But it is not as simple as a carbon producer paying a carbon sequester. First, if you want to sell a carbon credit contract, you must go through a carbon exchange like Chicago Carbon Exchange or (CCX). It is the only functional carbon exchange in the U.S. Lands in these contracts must be managed according to CCX regulations depending where the land is located. The CCX only deals in contracts from 192,000 acres to 833,333 acres depending on the amount of carbon tonnage sequestered by a certain forage in a certain soil type. The only way many landowners can participate is by pooling land with other local owners and that requires using an aggregator agent that works for 10 to 25 per cent of the carbon offset fees. Maybe I don’t understand quite enough, but why do I get the feeling this probably only eases the guilt of the carbon producer, while, for compensation, landowners will basically be letting some one else manage their land. After all, the land not receiving payments will still be sequestering carbon and saving the Earth. I’m Jeff Keane. Western-Farmer Stockman January 2009