By Mike Tony, [email protected]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bill that a West Virginia House of Delegates committee has advanced would limit use restrictions for forest carbon capture and sequestration to a 30-year maximum, drawing criticism it would discourage landowners from trying to protect the environment.
House Bill 4483 targets carbon offset agreements — deals in which businesses and individuals invest in environmental projects to balance out their carbon emissions that pollute the atmosphere and warm the world, resulting in increasingly destructive extreme weather patterns.
The bill’s definition of carbon offset agreements includes easements and leases. Approved by the Energy and Manufacturing Committee Thursday, HB 4483 would apply only to agreements executed after the bill becomes effective.
But critics of the bill note its requirement that carbon offset agreements be capped at 30 years amounts to a de facto ban on future landowner participation in a California state cap-and-trade program, which requires carbon reduction maintenance for a 100-year span.