Ethanol and Carbon Sequestration

I found an article some months back on 'farming carbon". With the push in the midwest for an ethanol carbon pipeline (Im opposed, but probably for differnt reasons than most), I thought I would write my current thoughts on the subject. I've long opposed the use of eminent domain to build it. I also think the curent incentives offered to farmers to adopt practices to store more carbon in the soil are too low. The ethanol pipeline group reinforced that belief in winning an incentive of $85 dollars a ton for carbon sequested by the pipeline. When I checked a few months ago, some companies were offering carbon payments to farmers in the $15 dollar a ton range. Side note - A farmer friend who has been a no till farmer for more than 10 years applied and was rejected because the company only wanted "new" no till farmers.

Quick takeaways - Farms in South dakote are already storing some carbon , with much better potential. Instead of incentivising a pipeline , why not pay farmers directly to store carbon instead of a pipeline that tramples on private property rights. Would direct payments to farmers also in turn qualify ethanol as a low carbon fuel? I bet a researcher might prove I'm correct, but funding opportunities probably lie with the carbon pipeline or the companies offering to pay farmers currently.

I recommend the article, but here's some closing thoughts. Why didn't incentives for wind farm development (wind production tax credit) reward farmers to develop wind themselves to offset carbon , instead of large absentee corporations years ago ? Looks pretty similar to the carbon pipeline issue, but for the environmental groups laughably opposing the pipeline while cheering on corporate wind development. Also note the bipartisan pipeline efforts by the reublicans such as the brandstands and tom vilsack's son. Farm groups have endorsed the pipeline as well instead of their farmers here. Why is that? I should tell the story about one major farm groups postion on Iowa wind development one day...

This photo is remind you to check out my featured post on wind farm property taxes ... I think you can guess I'm a huge proponent of farmers owning renewable energy tech instead of the largely corporate ownership in place now. I also detest calculating carbon offsets instead of just improving the environment and improving farm life... Sometimes though, someone does a much mich better job of putting my thoughts into words though, so please check this out.