Writing the rules on climate change; which do you prefer, Congress or the EPA?

Farm and Ranch July 8, 2009 The U.S. Senate has now begun its work on climate change legislation and as the debate moves forward there is something important to keep in mind. Were Congress not to pass climate change legislation it would not mean agriculture, or anyone else, would avoid federal action on greenhouse gases. National Association of Wheat Growers CEO Daren Coppock points out that the Environmental Protection Agency has issued an endangerment finding on carbon.

Coppock: “Under a Supreme Court decision what that means is that if EPA concludes that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, which their endangerment finding does, then they have the authority to regulate it anyway they see fit. So the options we are looking at are letting the EPA write whatever program they want to regulate carbon, or working with Congress to try to come up one that at least mitigates the damage if not providing some opportunities to growers. So our organization has come down that we have a lot more influence and a lot more opportunity to work to minimize the damage by working Congress than by letting EPA do whatever they want to do.”

Coppock thinks there are producers who don’t understand that if Congress doesn’t act the EPA will.

Coppock: “There is no door number three where we don‘t get any kind of climate legislation or climate regulation at all. We have to choose, at least in our view, between a legislative package or one done by EPA.”

Coppock expects the Senate will take more time to consider and debate climate change legislation than the House did.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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