SOIL
CARBON AND CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS
From
Consortium for Agricultural Soils
Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases (CASMGS)
http://soilcarboncenter.k-state.edu
Charles W. Rice, K-State Department of
Agronomy, National CASMGS Director
(785) 532-7217 cwrice@ksu.edu
Scott Staggenborg,
K-State Department of Agronomy (785) 532-7214 sstaggen@ksu.edu
Steve Watson, CASMGS Communications (785)
532-7105 swatson@ksu.edu
November 16, 2007
No. 58
K-State:
* CASMGS December Forum: Agriculture’s
Role in the New Carbon Economy
* New signup period for
Carbon Credit Program
National:
* Climate change work honored with Nobel Peace Prize
* National Association of
Wheat Growers Vice President Supports Carbon Market Bill
**********
CASMGS DECEMBER FORUM:
AGRICULTURE’S ROLE IN THE
NEW CARBON ECONOMY
Producers, policymakers,
regulators, and others interested in the rapidly changing field of climate
change policy, carbon credit trading, and biofuels
will want to attend an important forum in December on these topics at
“Agriculture’s Role in the
New Carbon Economy” is the title of the forum to be held December 17-18 at
K-State’s
Some of the topics at the
forum include:
* Nitrous oxide monitoring
in agriculture
* The COMET model and
scaling up issues
* Comparison of carbon
measuring techniques
* Cap-and-Trade: Is federal legislation coming?
* Economics of the existing ethanol industry adopting cellulosic technology
* Resource assessment needs, sustainability issues, and life-cycle standards
associated with biofuels development
* Modeling the impact of cellulosic ethanol
production on soil carbon
* Environmental impact of climate change on
*
“Policymakers at both state and federal levels are becoming more
interested in taking some kind of action on climate change, and agriculture
needs to make sure it is involved in the discussion. There are many ways
agriculture can be part of the solution, such as soil carbon sequestration and biofuels production,” said Rice.
“It’s also important to know how climate change could affect agriculture
in
The CASMGS Forum begins at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, December 17 and
concludes the following day at 5:00 p.m. The registration fee is $125, if
registration is made by December 10, and $175 after
that time. The banquet on Monday evening and lunch on Tuesday afternoon are
included in the registration fee.
To register, or for more details, see: http://soilcarboncenter.k-state.edu/Fall_Forum_CASMGS.html
**********
NEW SIGNUP PERIOD FOR
CARBON CREDIT PROGRAM
The Carbon Credit pilot project offered by
the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) has recently opened a new signup period. CCX
has given approval for aggregators to write contracts for no-till and seeded
grass beyond 2010, which was the formal end of the previous phase of the pilot
project.
The contract for the current signup period
is for the 5-year period of 2008-2012, with the option to cover 2007. Producers
who sign up their acreage into the program during the current signup period
must agree to maintain their land according to contract provisions for the
entire contract period in order to be eligible to receive payments. The
deadline for the current signup period is Sept. 15, 2008.
There are three types of programs for soil
carbon offset credits in
1. Conservation tillage
The enrollment criteria are included in
the map below.
A. Eastern Kansas counties are now
eligible for a carbon credit of 0.6 metric tons of CO2 per acre per
year for conservation tillage for the years 2008-2012.
B. In central
C. In western
General eligibility criteria and practices
for the region include but are not limited to the following:
* Enrolled acres may be planted in
soybeans no more 50 percent of the enrolled years;
* Continuous cotton and soybeans are
eligible only if there is a cover crop.
* Eligible implements include: no-till
drill, no-till and strip-till planters, rolling harrows, low disturbance liquid
manure injectors, anhydrous ammonia applicator, manure knife applicator, sub-soil
ripper with at least 24-inch shank spacing.
* Ineligible implements include: field
cultivators, tandem disk, offset disk, chisel plow, moldboard plow.
* In general if the implement would
require that a leveling or smoothing activity follow, it would likely result in
too much soil disturbance.
* Fallowed acres are not eligible in
this region.
* No Exchange Soil Offsets will be
issued in years in which residue removal occurs.
* Residue burning is not allowed.
CCX does not accept new contract enrollments
that utilize ridge-till. Also, CCX will not issue carbon credits on row
crop land that has the crop residue removed (silage, straw baling, straw burning,
corn stalk baling, etc.). This does not apply to alfalfa or grass hay, or
grass pasturing. Land on which the residue is removed will receive zero
"0" credit for the year in which the residue is removed.
2. New grass plantings
Land planted to grass on or after January
1, 1999 is eligible for carbon credits at the rate of 1.0 tons CO2 per acre per
year. The entire state of
http://www.chicagoclimateexchange.com/docs/offsets/Grassland_Conversion_Protocol.pdf
3. Rangeland
CCX has developed contracts
for agricultural carbon emission reductions for improved rangeland
management. Western and central
* Minimum 5 year contractual
commitment.
* Non-degraded rangeland
managed to increase carbon sequestration through grazing land management that
employs sustainable stocking rates, rotational grazing and seasonal use in
eligible locations.
* Restoration of previously
degraded rangeland through adoption of sustainable stocking rates, rotational
grazing and seasonal use grazing practices initiated on or after January 1,
1999.
* Projects must take place
within designated land resource regions.
* Offsets are issued at
standard rates depending on project type and location.
* Rates vary from 0.12 to
0.52 metric tons of CO2 per acre per year.
* All projects must be
independently verified by a CCX-approved verifier.
To provide evidence of
compliance in the rangeland program, the CCX will require site photographs, ranch stocking
records, and records from agricultural extension agencies. To obtain a copy of
the protocol for quantifying GHG reductions from managed rangeland, see:
http://www.chicagoclimateexchange.com/docs/offsets/Rangeland_Management_Protocol.pdf
There
are many details and stipulations involved in each of these programs, and
producers should review the contract closely. Producers can
sign a contract for the CCX program through either the Iowa Farm Bureau or
National Farmers Union.
In
the Iowa Farm Bureau’s program, producers can sign up for “Pool 6” from now
through September 15, 2008. Producers interested in the Pool 6 phase of this
carbon credit pilot project can find a complete description of the program and
a copy of the XSO (Exchange Soil Offset) sales contract at:
www.iowafarmbureau.com/special/carbon/default.aspx
For
more information, contact David Miller, Iowa Farm
Bureau Federation, 515-225-5430, or e-mail: damiller@ifbf.org
The National Farmers Union is also
currently accepting new contracts for the expanded enrollment acres in the CCX
program. The NFU carbon credit program web site is undergoing revisions, but
should be up and running again soon, if it’s not already. The criteria of the
NFU carbon credit program are the same as those of the Iowa Farm Bureau’s.
Details of the program and a copy of the contract can be found at: http://nfu.org/issues/environment/carbon-credits
For more information, contact
Prices
on the CCX for carbon credits are currently averaging about $2.00 per metric
ton of CO2 equivalent. The aggregators
(Iowa Farm Bureau and National Farmers Union) determine when the credits are
sold on the market, and take a small percentage of this for overhead.
The
CCX program also offers offset credits for methane and forestry plantings.
Complete details of the CCX offset programs and current prices can be found at:
http://www.chicagoclimateexchange.com/
-- Steve Watson, CASMGS Communications
**********
Climate
change work honored with
nobel
peace prize
Former Vice President Al
Gore and the United Nations IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on global climate change. CASMGS
researchers have been involved in many aspects of IPCC work in recent years.
For example, Keith Paustian, Steve Ogle, and Rich Conant, with the CASMGS group
at
As
another example, Chuck Rice, CASMGS researcher at
The
IPCC and Nobel Peace Prize are just the beginning of CASMGS’ long-term effort
to increase the role of agriculture in greenhouse gas mitigation.
-- Katie Starzec,
CASMGS Communications,
**********
National
Association of Wheat Growers Vice President
SUPPORTS
Carbon Market Bill
NAWG
Board Member and Montana Grain Growers Association Vice President Will Roehm testified recently that a “robust, uninhibited offset
market” for carbon and other greenhouse gases as outlined in the
Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill could provide significant new economic
opportunity for farmers.
Roehm said, in part:
“I
believe your proposed legislation takes an important first step in providing
the necessary infrastructure for agriculture to be recognized for the
immediate, cost effective and real greenhouse reductions and offsets our
industry can provide.
“The
American farmer has long been a careful steward of the land and the environment
and contributing to the reduction of environmentally harmful levels of
greenhouse gases is a logical extension of what we see as our stewardship
responsibilities ...
“There
are many critics of
Roehm spoke at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment
and Public Works’ Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to
Global Warming and Wildlife Protection. The hearing was held to examine the
Lieberman-Warner bill, officially titled “
A
number of Senators made positive comments about Roehm’s
testimony at the hearing, including Subcommittee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Subcommittee Ranking Member John Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). Baucus indicated for
the first time that he would support the bill, and Warner described a
discussion with another Senator, Jon Tester (D-Mont.), indicating that Tester
would also support the bill, in part because of Roehm’s
testimony.
The
Lieberman-Warner bill recognizes the important role agriculture can play in the
capturing and storing of greenhouse gases, including carbon sequestration. NAWG
supports the establishment of a carbon trading market, which would allow
farmers to earn money for practices that sequester carbon.
NAWG
is also investigating the possibility of the becoming a carbon aggregator.
To
view video of the hearing and learn more about the bill, please visit:
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=b04ba79f-802a-23ad-4454-b1d65deac488
To
read Roehm’s full testimony, please visit:
http://www.wheatworld.org/html/info.cfm?ID=19
-- National Association of
Wheat Growers, Wheatworld, Oct. 26, 2007
http://www.wheatworld.org/html/news.cfm?ID=1295
**********
MEETINGS OF INTEREST
Nov. 28-30, 2007
50th Anniversary of the
Global Carbon Dioxide Record Symposium
Dec. 17-18, 2007
CASMGS Forum: Agriculture's
Role in the New Carbon Economy
http://soilcarboncenter.k-state.edu/Fall_Forum_CASMGS.html
**********
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