Carbon Sequestration Project

The Public Policy Center partnered with the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (DNR), UNL Department of Agricultural Economics (Professor Gary Lynne), and the UNL College of Law (Professor Norman Thorson) to produce analyses of legal, social, and policy issues related to the viability of carbon sequestration as a commodity. Carbon sequestration is the long-term storage of carbon in the terrestrial biosphere, underground, or the oceans so that the buildup of carbon dioxide (the principal greenhouse gas) concentration in the atmosphere will reduce or slow.

The Carbon Sequestration project was based in LB 957 (2000). The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Carbon Sequestration Advisory Committee to facilitate addressing the problem of how to "quantify and verify carbon sequestration on agricultural land" in order to "enhance the ability of the state's agricultural landowners to participate in any system of carbon or greenhouse emissions marketing or trading."

The PPC assisted in synthesizing the legal and economic reports prepared by Professors Lynne and Thorson into a short chapter for the Report prepared by the Department of Natural Resources on Carbon Sequestration issues. The PPC also consulted with the Department and the Advisory Committee on other carbon policy matters.

The Department's Report was released in December 2001. The Report also includes the Advisory Committee's recommendations regarding carbon sequestration issues. The Report and the background papers are available below or through the Nebraska Carbon web-site.

Reports: