Farm group blasts emissions policy

The Utah Farm Bureau Federation is opposed to a cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions that is supported by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

The bureau contends that the program will lead to increased energy costs for the state's nearly 25,000 farming families.

Nearly 90 percent of Utah's electricity comes from coal-fired power plants. If the Western Climate Initiative's program is implemented in Utah, the plants will have to spend money on technology improvements to reduce emissions. The cost of such improvements will be passed on to the customers, said the bureau's chief executive officer Randy Parker, who last week testified before the Legislature's Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee.

"I would argue agriculture may be the most energy-intensive sector of the economy, carbon-energy intensive, because farmers rely on energy to run their farms," Parker said. From tractors, to underground water-pump irrigation systems, to heating barns in the winter, farmers rely heavily on diesel, gasoline or coal-fired electricity, which all release carbon emissions into the air, he said.

California, Oregon and Washington may have plenty of hydro-electric dams and wind power, but Utah's primary resource for electricity is coal.

Huntsman has worked with the governors and premiers of Arizona, British Columbia, California, Manitoba, Montana, New Mexico, Ontario, Oregon, Quebec and Washington — all members of the Western Climate Initiative. The program will begin in phases beginning in 2012, but before Utah can begin participating, the state Legislature must pass laws to determine how to enforce the emissions requirements.

Lisa Roskelley, spokeswoman for Huntsman, disagrees with the farm bureau's position on the carbon-emissions program. A nationwide cap-and-trade program will be inevitable, as both presidential candidates are discussing the issue, she said. Utah's representation in the Western Climate Initiative will give the state a voice that it may not have in a larger national effort.

"It's better to be ahead of the wave than trying to catch up. So this gives Utah a critical seat at the state level," Roskelley said.

---

E-MAIL: lhancock@desnews.com