War over indirect land use change, biofuels as showdown approaches for climate bill in House Agriculture Committee

In the mess commonly known as Washington, where the D.C. sometimes refers to “died [in] committee,” two attempts to tack on protection for biofuels to climate change legislation have temporarily failed in the House of Representatives.

In one instance, an attempt by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to amend the Renewable Fuel Standard by expand the definition of biomass to include federal forest waste. An amendment proposed by Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb) would have prevented the indirect land use change from taking effect in the Renewable Fuel Standard, but was also killed in the Energy & Commerce Committee.

However, the coal, oil and auto industries succeeded in watering down the proposed Waxman-Markey climate change bill, causing some environmental groups to oppose the bill as lacking sufficient breadth to address climate change.  The bill will ultimately be referred to eight different committees, according to Rep Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD). The bill is expected to arrive in the Agriculture Committee in June, where it will meet a divided committee headed by Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn) who has said that he will not support the bill unless indirect land use change is written out of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Peterson and ranking Republican on the Ag Committee, Frank Lucas (R-Okla), have sponsored a bill to kill off indirect land use change, and a bill of that nature would find a fairly warm reception in the Senate where farm states control 42 seats. One of the controversies of the climate bill is the cost to be borne by affected industries — corporations are terming the bill a job-killer and pointing to the fragile economy as a reason to dilute climate provisions in the bill.

Complicating the matter even more, farm lobbyists are themselves divided on the climate change bill. The American Farm Bureau Federation opposes the bill on cost concerns, but the National Farmers Union supports the bill as the alternative to the EPA imposing climate change rules by fiat using its expanded authority to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act.

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