Johanns to ag chief: Stick to facts

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack needs to back up claims that farmers and ranchers stand to reap significant benefits under proposed climate change legislation, Sen. Mike Johanns said Tuesday.

“This issue is too important for casual comments about idealistic outcomes. The success or failure of some farms literally could be on the line,” said Johanns, a Nebraska Republican.

Vilsack, Iowa’s former Democratic governor, is scheduled to testify today at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on the subject. Johanns is a member of the committee.

The climate change legislation is intended to get a handle on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and prompt other countries to follow suit. The House-passed version of the bill would establish a cap on emissions and require power plants and others to obtain allowances for the gases that they produce.

Farmers and ranchers have been keeping a close eye on the issue. On one hand, they’re worried about the potential for burdensome new regulations and higher energy costs.

But they also are intrigued by the idea of credits that they would receive for practicing carbon-mitigating farming techniques. They could then sell those credits to the power plants and factories.

Vilsack has talked up the potential profit from those credits, but Johanns said he wants to see that talk supported by sound data and professional analysis.

“Anything less is really empty rhetoric. It’s extravagant promises with no delivery,” he said.

Johanns pointed to reports from the American Farm Bureau, the Fertilizer Institute and the Heritage Foundation showing that the legislation would result in significant increases in the prices of farm necessities, from fertilizer to diesel fuel.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., also a member of the Agriculture Committee, said he looks forward to learning more at the hearing, but he’s also skeptical of the carbon credits.

Vilsack and others have said farmers have a real interest in addressing climate change, which threatens to produce increasingly severe droughts and storms that can ruin crops.

But Johanns said that the legislation will be ineffective if other countries such as China and India do nothing to curb their greenhouse gas emissions.

Sotomayor impresses Ben Nelson

WASHINGTON — Judge Sonia Sotomayor did well in her confirmation hearings last week, Sen. Ben Nelson said Tuesday.

The Nebraska Democrat had expressed initial concerns about past statements by the Supreme Court nominee, but he said Tuesday that those concerns have been laid to rest.

“She explained away what she meant and how it came out differently, perhaps, than she had anticipated and perhaps was also taken differently than she intended,” Nelson said.

Nelson said he still wants to see what the Senate Judiciary Committee does with the nomination before deciding how he will vote.

Contact the writer:

202-662-7270, joe.morton@owh.com

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