North Dakota Carbon Credit Program Pays Off Big
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July 29, 2008
Jamestown, ND – The national Farmers Union Carbon Credit program that began in 2006 is sending out payment checks today to farmers and ranchers. Robert Carlson, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, says the check is in the mail for 990 agricultural producers in North Dakota.
"They'll be opening checks for a total of $2.6 million in North Dakota and about $5.8 million nationally."
Carlson says enrollees purchase carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange for conservation practices that most farmers already use, like no-till and seeded grass offsets, prescribed grazing on native rangeland, tree planting projects and methane capture projects. He says more farmers would sign up if the price of carbon were at the level it is in Europe, where a similar program is mandatory.
"I think when we in the United States do have some kind of legislation to reduce greenhouse gases, we'll see a cap-and-trade program like this, and we'll see the value increase some."
Carlson says the nearly $6 million is new money coming into rural America. The amount of sequestered carbon dioxide from conservation practices in the North Dakota program alone offsets the estimated annual emissions of 320,000 automobiles.