U.S. farmers and ranchers stand to reap a new bounty for their toils. Compromise climate change legislation recently passed by the U.S. House creates a new market opportunity for farmers and ranchers to become important players in proposed cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction plans.

Under the compromise, environmental attorney Scott Deatherage of Thompson & Knight's Dallas office says famers and ranchers would be exempt from the bill's greenhouse gas emission reduction requirements, which means that farmers, ranchers and forestland owners would not be subject to any caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, farmers ranchers and forestland owners would be encouraged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon from their operations. With offests earned from these actions, they could get into the business of selling credits to utilities, refiners, or other firms that operate under the new greenhouse gas limitations. All of this hinges on whether the bill can make it through the U.S. Senate unscathed.

Environmental attorney Dallas' Richard O. Faulk, head of the Environmental Practice Group at Gardere Wynne Sewell,says the compromise is a major victory for agribusiness, as well as rural America. "Far too many U.S. Legislators seemed to have lost sight of the impact their decisions could have," says Faulk. "These agribusinesses, and the areas that support them, often walk a very narrow line between profit and loss." Even with the compromise, Faulk still sees the legislation as problematic. "Perhaps now the headlong rush to regulate America's farmers and ranchers can take a more measured pace. The number of family farms has declined precipitously since the 1930s. There are so many other problems with this bill that it would have been tragic if this ill-conceived piece of legislation had hastened that decline." To interview Mr. Deatherage or Mr. Faulk, contact Rhonda Reddick(rhonda@androvett.com) or Barry Pound(barry@androvett.com) at 800-559-4534.