Deal Elusive on Bipartisan Agriculture Climate Bill

by Mark Heller (E&E News) The House Agriculture panel's top Republican said he thought a revised "Growing Climate Solutions Act" was on the way to passage — until it wasn't. -- The top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee said a bill to bolster carbon sequestration in farming seemed to be on a path to passage last month after months languishing in the House — then quickly fizzled again.

"I don't know what happened," Thompson told agriculture reporters yesterday about the "Growing Climate Solutions Act," H.R. 2820, sponsored by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.).

Among other highlights, the bill as introduced would direct the Department of Agriculture to create a certification system for third-party vendors who could help farmers adopt and measure practices to sequester carbon, such as through conservation. Thompson opposes the bill as written but said the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Agriculture committees had agreed to changes to address his reservations.

Thompson said he had expected a revised measure to be attached to the omnibus appropriations bill Congress passed last month for the current fiscal year. But that didn't happen. READ MORE