USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack held his first briefing with reporters after taking the helm at USDA, talking about climate change goals for the Biden administration. But Vilsack stayed silent on the key issue of how he would pursue climate and conservation policy, including a timeline for setting up an ag carbon bank, but he said he would be working with Capitol Hill on those topics.
He also did not indicate if he believes he has authority to tap the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) for an ag carbon bank. “If there is congressional authority that we need or additional appropriations we need, we ought to be advocating for that. Over the course of the next several months, I'm sure that we will be doing a little bit of all of that,” he said.
He will meet with the USDA climate team today and discuss further the efforts that would involve USDA.
He did note that China “seems to be living up to its responsibilities” relative to the Phase One commitments, but cautioned that “at any point in time, because of the complex nature of the China-U.S. relationship, things can happen that might affect those purchases.