Did Rural Farmers Kill The Chance Of a Copenhagen Protocol?

by Mike Smith · 2009-11-15 12:00:00 UTC
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Farmers in rural America depend on oil, with their costs linked to its price. A cap and trade deal, and subsequent higher energy prices, would endanger farm jobs, and as the Economist reports, farmers cannot see how they would be able to work without cheap fossil fuels. In order to have any climate deal pass the Senate (like the House Cap and Trade deal) benefits and allowances must for those representing farmers. That was tougher enough in the House, but in the Senate, with sparsely populated states over-represented, more allowances will have to be made.

Farmers will be given handouts, and clean coal subsidized. Many question the logic and the phenomenal cost of clean coal (at the expense of cheaper, cleaner technology) but many Senators representing the interests of these farmers like it, and if any climate deal is going to be passed, it's essential to have them on side.

Senators skeptical of the need for immediate action will be glad to hear that the liklihood of a binding climate deal happening at Copenhagen is even less likely now, with President Obama acknowledging that time has run out, and that a deal is more likely to happen next year. The outcome of the Copenhagen conference is now likely to only be a political agreement, rather than an action plan. The U.S. Senate is being blamed for the lack of progress in domestic legislation, which is having a knock-on effect worldwide.

Photo credit: Let Ideas Compete

Mike Smith
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