The US Department of Agriculture, General Motors and Ducks Unlimited have agreed to create a market for carbon credits generated on working grasslands. Chevrolet a division of G.M. purchased almost 40,000 carbon dioxide reduction tons generated on working grasslands in North Dakota. North Dakota Farmers Union President Mark Watne says they had attempted their own carbon credits program in the past. He says there are both positives and negatives to this agreement.
Watne says he’s a little leery of the group’s motives with this particular carbon credits program.
Ducks Unlimited officials say this program will benefit at risk grasslands that are disappearing at an alarming rate. Watne says making the farm program more valuable by tying in conservation would help solve that problem.
Landowner’s easements in the new carbon credits program will be monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in North Dakota.