(WASHINGTON, D.C.) U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), ranking members of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees respectively, have sent letters to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson regarding the climate change legislation analysis models used by both USDA and the EPA.
Full text of the letters are below
The Honorable Tom Vilsack
Secretary
United States Department of Agriculture
14th and Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Secretary Vilsack:
It is with significant interest and concern that we read your comments this week regarding the climate change legislation analysis produced by the Department of Agriculture’s Office of the Chief Economist. Statements that imply a lack of confidence in both the modeling used and work product developed by USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) raise doubts regarding the Administration’s position on cap and trade legislation and, more importantly, the impacts on the agricultural and forestry sectors.
The Department’s testimony delivered earlier this month to the House Agriculture Committee is clear and unequivocal; agriculture will undergo significant structural impacts that will change how food, feed, fiber and fuel are produced in the United States. The disappearance of 59 million acres of cropland, higher food prices and lower exports will undoubtedly shape how farmers and ranchers make a living in the years ahead. While we can disagree on policy, we cannot ignore the facts when they are inconvenient to our preferred narrative.
In light of your critique of USDA’s analysis, we respectfully request your office consult with the EPA and report to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees on the problems with the economic model in order to reflect realistic scenarios while examining the impact of cap and trade on the agriculture and forestry sectors. Moving forward with flawed studies will only result in bad policy and legislation.
Thank you for your attention to this matter and we look forward to working with you on this and other important issues to farmers and ranchers in the future.
U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)
U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)
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The Honorable Lisa Jackson
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Dear Administrator Jackson:
Recent comments by Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack raise concerns with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) analysis of H.R. 2454. Specifically, Secretary Vilsack indicates the agriculture and forestry model utilized by your agency, the Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model (FASOM) is not “current” and “complete.”
EPA’s analysis was often cited during debate in the House of Representatives and the study had a great impact on the final vote. If there was a flaw in the analysis, then it would be prudent to correct the model and perform a more current and complete analysis on both H.R. 2454 and S. 1733. Moving forward with flawed studies will only result in bad policy and legislation.
In addition, given the importance of this issue to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, we respectfully request the EPA provide a briefing along with USDA regarding updates to the model and results from any future analysis. It is our hope that a thorough study of the House and Senate climate change bills will provide the Congress with the necessary information to make informed decisions. The impacts of these bills are too consequential to ask otherwise.
Thank you for your attention to this matter and we look forward to working with you on this and other important issues to farmers and ranchers in the future.
U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)
U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)