Agriculture Committee's Top Republicans Call for Updated Climate Change Analysis

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) are calling on USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency to report to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees on the problems with the economic model used to analyze proposed climate change legislation "in order to reflect realistic scenarios while examining the impact of cap and trade on the agriculture and forestry sectors."

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the two say comments made by Vilsack regarding the climate change legislation analysis produced by USDA's Office of the Chief Economist. "imply a lack of confidence in both the modeling used and work product developed by USDA and [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 two lawmakers are the ranking minority members of the two chambers' Agriculture committees.