Roseville, IL – The Illinois Soybean Association is not in favor of the proposed cap-and-trade legislation.
Board Chair Ron Moore is worried about climate change regulations in the bill. He says most farmers feel the regulations are not needed. "We have embraced House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson's amendment on the house version of the cap and trade bill," says Moore. "That would make the USDA the lead agency for some of the climate change regulations. We don't believe this will be a good bill for mainstream agriculture"
Moore says the US Supreme Court recently ruled the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. "If there isn't some kind of legislation from Congress clarifying what the EPA can and cannot do, then it will be the EPA's decision to regulate greenhouse gas emissions."
Moore believes the E-P-A is "not friendly towards agriculture." Moore says the bill will increase input costs for soybean farmers. "Many of the inputs that we use in soybean production are directly related to petroleum prices," says Moore.
"So anything that is going to increase our energy costs is going to increase all of the inputs that we use. Some of the research has said that it's going to increase our costs significantly over the life of the bill."
"We do not support the bill at this point," says Moore. "But we do hope that we can be a part of the discussions, in the Senate especially. We think there are some things that need to be improved in this bill."