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One critic asserts that the farming lobby is overreaching.  Having already gotten a "free pass" as the "one major source" of carbon emissions not covered by the House climate bill, this critic chastises the farm lobby for demanding another "that they be allowed to earn some extra cash by reducing their carbon footprint on their farms and selling these 'offsets' to factories and power plants unlucky enough to be subject to the carbon cap regime."  This is the classic example of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.  Offsets represent a critical tool in our arsenal for battling climate change.  Thankfully, the climate change bill already recognizes that by expressly authorizing regulated entities to reduce their emission allowance requirements through development or acquisition of offsets.  The new language simply clarifies that if farms invest in carbon-reducing activities, the resulting carbon offsets could be sold to regulated entities for use in meeting GHG emission obligations under the climate bill.  This is precisely what we should be doing - facilitating achievement of the GHG reduction targets specified in the bill.

My only criticism is that sponsors of the ag offset amendment omitted from the list of qualifying offsets a very important one: biochar.  Biochar is a charcoal-like product that is produced by heating crop residues, animal manure and many other organic wastes in an oxygen-depleted environment.  Heating agricultural wastes in this manner generates an off-gas, which can be used for fuel, and a solid -- biochar -- which effectively sequesters carbon.  If biochar is placed in soil, the carbon it contains will remain in place for hundreds of years without releasing carbon dioxide (CO₂).  Thus, instead of the crop residues and animal manure being broken down by biological processes that release CO₂ into the atmosphere immediately or within a matter of weeks, the carbon is sequestered and will not be released into the atmosphere for centuries.  As a result of this practice, agriculture can become "carbon negative" -- which is better than "carbon neutral."  Acknowledged experts such as Durwood Zaelke have demonstrated that widespread adoption of this practice by agriculture could as big an impact on reducing atmospheric CO₂ levels as renewable energy.  Let's hope the Senate corrects the omission of biochar from the list of accepted agricultural offsets.