Climate Change Will Cost Farmers Far More Than a Climate Bill
Farm industry leaders and their supporters in Congress are trying to derail climate change legislation by insisting that the House-passed bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), will cause ruinous increases in the costs of production for farmers. They claim this threat is so potentially devastating that climate change legislation should be shelved or loaded up with concessions that send more money to their agricultural constituents.But a new analysis by the Environmental Working Group of US Department of Agriculture cost estimates finds that the projected increased costs of production due to the climate bill will be so small ⎯ $0.45 per acre for soybeans, $0.66 per acre for wheat, and $1.19 per acre for corn, for example ⎯ that they amount to well under one half of one percent of current production costs.
