The Use of Agricultural Offsets to Reduce Greenhouse Gases
"Today [12/3/09] CBO’s Assistant Director for Microeconomic Studies, Joseph Kile, testified before the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research on the use of agricultural offsets as part of a cap-and-trade program for reducing greenhouse gases. Discussions about reducing greenhouse gases often focus on limiting the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity or power cars and trucks, yet a variety of other actions—including changing methods of farming and lessening deforestation—could also reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Those activities, which would not be subject to limits on emissions under a cap-and-trade program, would have the potential to “offset” the burden of reducing emissions and reduce the net cost of achieving the environmental objective. This testimony draws upon CBO’s August 2009 brief on the use of offsets as well as our analysis of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, which was passed by the House of Representatives..."