On a number of counts, Utah House Concurrent Resolution 1 (H.C.R. 1) is landmark legislation.

The fact that a significant climate policy proposal such as H.C.R. 1 passed the legislature unanimously and was signed by the governor is alone enough to make it a landmark accomplishment.  This suggests that it could serve as a guide for making similar significant progress in the highly divisive climate policy arena.

(The text of H.C.R. 1 in two versions is available below.  Also available below is a detailed analysis of the resolution by Win/Win CO2 Solutions Alliance. It examines important elements in H.C.R. 1 and some of the implications its adoption could have for national and even global climate policy.)

Other highlights of H.C.R. 1:   

It fully recognizes the immense potential for sequestering atmospheric carbon long-term in soils and natural systems. To our knowledge, H.C.R 1 is the first governmental recognition of this full potential.

It uses the reality of this vast potential to recommend a major shift in federal climate policy and funding by concentrating on natural carbon sequestration as the primary strategy for dealing with climate issues in the short to mid-term, especially with respect to public lands.

It suggests a broadened and innovative cost-benefit analysis, the “social benefits of carbon sequestration,” as the mechanism for prioritizing federal climate policy emphasis and funding. This test would recognize the many co-benefits that flow from enhanced natural carbon sequestration.  Among other things, applying it would mean much greater emphasis on supporting and promoting such things as regenerative agriculture, adaptive multi-paddock and other planned grazing systems and practicing sustainable forestry as the primary tools in dealing with climate in the short to mid-term.  

It provides a foundation for a plan that could “buy” the time to transition to a post-carbon future in a more responsible, economical, measured, efficient, just, equitable, and overall smarter way than will likely occur otherwise, all while also achieving and maintaining net-zero and even net-negative CO2 emissions into the mid-term.

It recommends a sensible and achievable stewardship standard for federal land management agencies and suggests a mechanism to hold the agencies publicly accountable for how well they are meeting this standard.  

For additional documentation and resources on this bill, visit the H.R.C.1 page on the Utah State Legislature website here.