The White House is trying a “voluntary” approach on for size in launching a major new climate change initiative Thursday that aims to double emission reductions from the farming and agriculture industry.
The voluntary strategy comes amid the backdrop of the administration’s pursuit of aggressive regulations to force states to pare back emissions under the Environmental Protection Agency’s contentious Clean Power Plan.
“This announcement is a very big deal,” White House adviser Brian Deese told reporters on a conference call Thursday afternoon, rounding out a week of administration events meant to highlight the significance of Earth Day.
The initiative seeks to double emissions reductions currently being achieved by the farming sector, from 60 to 120 million metric tons by 2025, said Deese, who was joined on the call by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will be the plan’s implementing agency.
The initiative will leverage work already being done at the Department of Agriculture, Vilsack said. It will be voluntary and done without any new money from Congress, he said.
Instead of using new money, it will look to leverage federal money to encourage the private sector to match each government dollar with hundreds from private sources.
Vilsack said the voluntary nature of the program will seek to encourage farmers and ranchers through incentives to push the envelope on emission reductions. These reductions would be achieved through applying state-of-the-art farming practices that better manage the soil, along with the agency’s existing renewable energy funding programs.
The plan takes some terminology from the EPA’s proposed rule for power plants. Both the Clean Power Plan and the agriculture agency make use of “building blocks,” which are the particular items stakeholders can use to meet emission reductions. The new plan is called the Building Blocks for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry.
But the terminology appears to be where the comparison ends.
The Agricultural Department includes 10 building blocks, where EPA includes only four. The building blocks under the EPA plan have been a source of confusion over how much natural gas, renewable sources, coal and efficiency can be used to meet state-specific targets.
