House Climate Crisis Committee releases “action plan”

The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released its “Climate Crisis Action Plan” – Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy and Just America. The 500-page document outlines the legislative actions needed to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and highlights opportunities across twelve economic sectors including agriculture and science and technology.

Within the agriculture section, the report highlights established best practices to increase climate stewardship such as no-till, perennials, cover crops, etc. and that the primary barrier to adoption is economic. While there are no novel suggestions for increasing the economic incentives, the report proposes to increase funding for current programs, such as CSP, EQIP, and RCPP and to increase enrollment in those programs through increasing USDA staffing in field offices. On the research side, many USDA research programs were cited for increased funding, including Conservation Innovation Grants, SARE, OREI, AFRI, and ARS.

In November, ASA, CSSA, and SSSA surveyed Society members, seeking their input and suggestions to help shape the comments that the Societies submitted to the Select Committee. See the full comments here.