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Sen. Brownback a Proponent of Carbon Sequestration

-- John -- 02/02/2007

    Pulling a nondescript handkerchief from his coat pocket at a luncheon today in Columbia, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) had an interesting observation to make:  “This piece of cloth is half cotton and half corn.”  The Senator even boasts a rug made of corn.  And in getting America energy independent, one of his “big, America-sized goals,” Brownback offered a number of proposals during his speech, including promoting ethanol fuel, hybrid-electric motor fleets and carbon sequestration.  
    Meeting with Conservation Voters of South Carolina members after his speech, Senator Brownback pointed out that in 2001 he sponsored the Carbon Conservation Incentive Act, which would give tax credits to landowners who devote a portion of their land for carbon sequestration.  In 2000 the Senator traveled to Brazil to view how carbon sequestration projects pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it in trees and soil.  Such projects not only take carbon dioxide out of the air, they provide farmers and landowners an incentive not to put all of their arable land into agriculture.  Having grown up on a farm, and representing a big agriculture state like Kansas, Senator Brownback says he sees one part of the solution to global climate change coming from America’s family farmers.