A West Virginia legislative panel has approved a bill that would introduce a potential penalty for landowners and developers who enter into private agreements for projects that use forestland to decrease harmful carbon dioxide emissions.
The Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee on Monday advanced, with little discussion, Senate Bill 118, which would create a Division of Forestry-administered forest carbon registry to track properties covered by carbon offset agreements.
SB 118 follows a long line of other bills that have advanced but stalled in recent state legislative sessions designed to track such properties, including last year’s similar SB 730.
Both SB 118 and SB 730 were introduced by Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam. Those and related bills from past sessions have been a response to a growing number of private programs that enable the carbon sequestered by enrolled West Virginia landowners to become part of a carbon market in the form of carbon credits.
Carbon credits are permits that companies use to offset the carbon dioxide they emit. Credits represent the removal of one metric ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Landowners profit from deals with companies moving toward carbon neutrality by a given date.
Some state lawmakers have expressed concerns in recent years about the potential for agreements to limit timbering and long-term land use restrictions that apply to future landowners. The West Virginia Legislature Division of Regulatory and Fiscal Affairs has told state legislators that private deals come with no reporting, notification or registration requirements, leaving the state in the dark about their duration and financial terms.
But efforts to track and regulate carbon offset agreements like SB 118 have stalled in the Legislature in recent sessions, drawing criticism they would infringe on West Virginians’ property rights and jeopardize landowners’ ability to profit from the agreements.
Sen. Craig Hart, R-Mingo, opposed SB 118, arguing the bill “legitimizes these green credits†and expressing hope for unspecified amendments. The committee sent the bill to the Finance Committee for its consideration.
Bill would require reporting landowner and deal information
Under SB 118, the developer or landowner would have to provide:
Names and contact information of the landowners and developers
A geospatial data file format delineating the boundaries of encumbered properties
Dates of execution of each agreement or initiation of a project
The duration and forest management obligations of each carbon offset obligation
Per SB 118, the registry would include the legal description of any property covered by such an agreement, geospatial data delineating the boundaries of those properties and names and contact information of landowners and purchasers.
Under SB 118, the Division of Forestry could establish rules that set fees to cover administrative costs, a move West Virginia Farm Bureau representative Dwayne O’Dell told the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee before it advanced the similar SB 730 last year would constitute a tax increase.
SB 118 would cap fees to cover administrative costs at $50 per forest carbon project, unlike SB 730, which did not include a cap.
SB 118 would impose $1,000 and $2,000 penalties for first and second offenses, respectively, on any landowner or developer who fails to record with the registry a carbon offset agreement or project.
The 60th day following an initial 120-day deadline during which the agreement or project is unrecorded would constitute a subsequent offense under SB 118.
Last year’s SB 730 included a provision that would have permanently suspended the responsible party’s West Virginia business license. SB 118 doesn’t include that provision.
SB 118 would require the developer who contracts with the landowner and purchaser of carbon credits to record forest carbon offset activities. The legislation would hold a landowner, including a carbon trading company, responsible for recording forest carbon offset activities only when the landowner directly initiates and sells carbon offsets through a carbon offset project on their own property.Â
Within 120 days of executing or altering a carbon offset project, a developer or landowner would have to submit required information, including geographic information system shapefiles that contain the boundaries and location of the property, to the state registry.
By July 1, 2027, the developer or landowner would have to file a description of the land by reference to its tax map and lot number as well as the duration of any forest carbon offset agreement with the county courthouse of any county in which the land is sited.
The county clerk then would have to file record of the agreement in such a way to ensure that it’s “readily apparent†when conducting a title search for the encumbered land.
No fiscal note regarding potential financial impacts of SB 118 had been released as of Wednesday afternoon.
Mike Tony covers energy and the environment. He can be reached at mtony@hdmediallc.com or 304-348-1236. Follow @Mike__Tony on X.Â
