Wednesday, there is a meeting scheduled to discuss carbon credits and the use of county forests for carbon offsets. Additionally, Commissioner Parry has talked about consolidating the county’s water rights and applying them in some form of water mitigation banking plan. On the surface, I think exploring these concepts is a worthy enterprise all though it is important to bear in mind that carbon credits are sold in order to allow the purchaser to screw up the environment somewhere else and presumably water banking would have a similar byproduct. Lets say these are good things for the county yet the benefits are not likely to be near term since the market for these commodities is still establishing itself in an ill defined regulatory climate.

The same concern regarding solving the county’s immediate revenue needs holds with the Coos Bay Wagon Road because there is no guarantee Congress will approve the Coquille Tribe’s management of the timber, or that the tribe would be allowed to ignore federal forest management plans and the market for timber is volatile and beyond local control. Nevertheless, the commissioners, in particular Bob Main, have chosen to ignore recommendations made in 2009 by the governor’s office that are achievable at the local level and would provide a predictable revenue stream that would make future budgeting much easier. The commission appears to be ignoring solid dependable options that do not require an act of Congress and consigning the county to a risky and speculative future.

UPDATE: Based upon the carbon credits workshop held today, the conditions of selling carbon credits which include making a 100 year commitment not to clear cut the acreage involved and the current volatility and purely voluntary nature of the market in the US seems to indicate that Coos County will not be generating that type of revenue in time to offset the loss of federal forest payments. Will post some enlightening video clips from the chamber luncheon of last week and the carbon credits meeting today in a new post when the today’s video is available.