The American Clean Energy and Security Act – better known as the climate change bill – is heading to the House floor this week now that leadership has struck a deal with farm state opponents led by Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN).

Part of the agreement includes allowing USDA to have oversight for agricultural carbon offset programs instead of EPA. “The climate change bill will include a strong agriculture offset program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that will allow farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners to participate fully in a market-based carbon offset program,” said Peterson. “This agreement also addresses concerns about international indirect land use provisions that unfairly restricted U.S. biofuels producers and exempts agriculture and forestry from the definition of a capped sector.”

The deal has made some farm groups more comfortable with the sweeping legislation, but not the American Farm Bureau Federation. AFBF president Bob Stallman issued a statement today praising Peterson’s efforts but saying that the bill is still seriously flawed and problematic for agriculture.

“This legislation raises a wide range of issues that are detrimental to U.S. agriculture. One of the chief challenges is the energy deficit the bill will create. New technologies hold great promise for our nation, but are nowhere close to coming on line. The bill forces agriculture and other productive sectors of our nation’s economy into a position of severe competitive disadvantage with trading partners like China and other nations who will not burden their economies to control carbon emissions.”

“Despite inclusion of Chairman Peterson’s hard-fought provisions to reward farmers for carbon offsets and to remove the phony indirect-land-use calculation, this bill should be amended further or defeated.”