Colorado’s farmers and ranchers have an important decision to make when it comes to global warming.
We can ignore the science that tells us a warming climate will diminish our water supplies and make it more difficult to make a living off of our land, or we can support a national energy policy that will make us part of the global warming solution, while creating new opportunities and revenue streams to keep family farmers and ranchers on our land.
We can continue to bind our prosperity to a fossil fuel-based economy to the advantage of foreign powers with agendas often at odds with our own, or we can declare energy independence and embark on a transformation that will capitalize on home-grown, American energy resources.
For too long, America has lacked an energy policy. That is changing. Right now, the U.S. House of Representatives is discussing the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a comprehensive, clean-energy bill that has the potential to repower America, setting us on a sound foundation of clean, renewable, secure energy resources by making renewable energy a priority.
The legislation will, for the first time, assign a price to the emission of greenhouse gas pollution that threatens to increase the likelihood of vast wildfires and persistent, more severe drought.
Contrarians will inevitably come up with figures and studies that say such a policy will cost us. But here in Colorado, we already know that unleashing the New Energy Economy creates unprecedented opportunity in communities statewide.
Edward Koester grows millet and wheat on 320 acres in Logan County. He and his wife have had to find off-farm jobs to make ends meet. But he has been able to keep his farm, in part because he earns royalties from an energy company that built wind turbines on his land. Under legislation now being considered by Congress, wind farms like Ed’s will become much more common. A school-owned wind turbine stands above my hometown of Wray, generating 100 percent of the school’s energy needs and surplus cash flow for enhanced education programs.
Countless other farmers and ranchers will benefit from the offset market created by this clean energy policy. The legislation will require polluters to either reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases or purchase carbon credits. Some credits will be generated and sold to polluters by landowners that change their on-farm practices, resulting in carbon savings. Like leasing land for wind turbines, selling offsets will provide an additional stream of revenue to cash-strapped Colorado farmers.
There are some critics who say we can’t afford this sort of energy policy, that it would add too much to our electricity and gasoline prices. Here in Colorado, they must have blinders on.
Colorado is filled with clean energy pioneers who will prosper and proliferate when national climate legislation is enacted. Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is investing $700 million in Colorado that will create 2,500 new jobs building parts for turbines in Pueblo, Windsor and Brighton. Range Fuels is processing beetle-killed trees into cellulosic ethanol. Abound Solar and Ascent Solar, both Colorado companies, have opened new and expanded manufacturing plants, putting more Coloradans to work producing cutting-edge solar panels. In short, the clean energy transformation is underway in Colorado.
Farming in Colorado is a way of life. But Colorado farmers know that they are at Mother Nature’s mercy. Ignoring global warming puts this life and the livelihood of thousands of Colorado families at risk.
It is imperative that the American Clean Energy and Security Act pass. Our environment, our energy independence and the vibrancy of our rural communities depend on it.
Michael Bowman is a founder of the National 25x’25 Alliance, a coalition dedicated to the devel- opment of renewable energy resources.
