Ag Policy Blog
Chevrolet Buys CO2 Credits from Working Ranch Grasslands
The work by prairie pothole ranchers to maintain grasslands in North Dakota is being used by a General Motors company to improve its carbon footprint, in a new partnership USDA announced Monday that led to the purchase of 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide reduction credits.
A USDA grant was used to create the program that creates a market for carbon credits.
Chevrolet's first voluntary purchase of third-party verified carbon credits was undertaken to reduce 8 million tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted. The Detroit Free Press reported Monday that GM plans to spend about $40 million to make the CO2 reductions. USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service awarded $161,000 through a conservation innovation grant to Ducks Unlimited in 2011 to develop a methodology used to quantify the carbon stored in the soil by avoiding grassland conversions.
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According to a USDA news release this is how the credit system works:
-Landowners voluntarily place lands in a "perpetual easement" while retaining rights to work the land. The Detroit Free Press reported Monday that the program includes about 11,000 acres on 11 ranches.
-The carbon storage benefits are quantified, verified and formally registered resulting in carbon credits.
-Carbon credits are made available to entities interested in purchasing carbon offsets. Landowners receive compensation for the carbon credits generated on their lands.
"The amount of carbon dioxide removed from our atmosphere by Chevrolet's purchase of carbon credits equals the amount that would be reduced by taking more than 5,000 cars off the road," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. "This public-private partnership demonstrates how much can be achieved with a modest federal investment and a strong commitment to cut carbon pollution."
Public-private partnerships to enhance U.S. carbon sinks such as forests, grasslands, wetlands and coastal areas, are a part of the Obama administration's efforts to prepare communities for the impacts of climate change and enhance the nation's climate resilience. In October the administration announced a climate and natural resources priority agenda that represents a commitment across the federal government to support resilience of natural resources. The administration's agenda identifies a suite of actions the federal government will take to enhance the resilience of America's natural resources.
"While assessments on the future of agriculture and forestry show that climate change holds these and other challenges in the years ahead, American producers are longtime leaders in innovation, risk management and adaptation," USDA said in a news release. "USDA has supported these efforts for more than a century. Now USDA is developing new tools to help rural America create climate solutions and play a role in President Obama's comprehensive effort to reduce carbon pollution."
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