An Oregon county weighs cap-and-trade for emissions

Register-Guard (Oregon): The public forest lands in Lane County and across Oregon have long been measured in terms of their value to lumber, recreation and natural habitat. Now the county board is considering a new role for them: Battling global warming.

The commissioners are considering the monetary value of public forests for carbon sequestration, which is the absorption of “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide that cause climate change. The county wants to be positioned to benefit if the federal government — even years from now — starts paying communities that take harmful gases out of the air, a county official said this week.

The county is working with state representatives on a statement asking Congress to share any future revenue from carbon sequestration on federal forest lands in the counties, just as revenue from timber sales is shared today, said Alex Cuyler, the county’s intergovernmental relations manager.

Under the “cap-and-trade” model, the nation’s carbon emissions could be capped at a certain level and entities that produce less greenhouse gases could sell credits to those that produce more.

…Cuyler said, however, that the county board hasn’t established the forests’ value for carbon sequestration versus their value for other uses such as harvest. “Those people who would argue for forest management based on carbon sequestration are going to make a different argument than those who would base it on timber management,” Cuyler said....

Old growth forest in Washington county, Oregon