A bill to promote carbon protection will likely get a hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee. The Growing Climate Solutions Act would give the USDA the ability to certify agriculture carbon trading providers.
Sen. Mike Braun believes that it could take some time before the bill gets enacted. He says it would have to be part of a larger bill and likely would not come before the next Congress.
Some lingering issues with the bill include verification that carbon stored in the soil is kept there and not tilled up during planting and if the efforts are actually beneficial, rather than just shifting carbon credits around without drawing more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.