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Revenues from carbon fees can fund incentives for California
farmers to adopt clean energy technologies such as solar
photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, and wood gasification. 
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and other
air quality control districts already monitor clean air farming
practices such as integrated pest management (the use of both
biological and chemical control of weeds, bugs, fungi, and soil
borne organisms) to minimize spraying and fumigating with
pesticides; using spraying equipment with optical sensors to
minimize the amount of pesticides sprayed; conservation tillage to
reduce the number of tractor trips across fields and the
disturbance of the soil to diminish dust, diesel, and CO2
emissions; and applying road oil on dirt roads to reduce fugitive
dust emissions.  The USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service
funds many of these practices specifically to diminish air
pollution coming from farms.  The California Air Resources Board
could use the air pollution control districts’ clean air farming
practices monitoring data bases to identify farmers who are
already helping clean up the air and the USDA Natural Resource
Conservation Service to administer the award of incentive payments
that reduce the cost of clean energy equipment to those farmers who
have contributed the most to cleaning up the air.  Carbon fee
revenues would fund the air quality control districts’ sharing of
clean air farming practices data and the cost of administering the
payment of incentives to “Clean Air Farmers” by the USDA Natural
Resource Conservation Service to install clean energy equipment.

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Date and Time Comment Was Submitted: 2008-08-03 17:30:55