Wed December 7, 2011  Can 'Carbon Ranching' Offset Emissions In
Calif.?  Second of a two-part series on California's climate
policies. Read part 1.  Climate experts are exploring the
concept of growing dense fields of weeds to help soak up carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere.  Just over a year from now,
California will begin enforcing a set of laws that limit
emissions of greenhouse gases from factories, power plants and,
eventually, from vehicles.  So if you run a power plant in
California, you might reduce your footprint by buying new,
cleaner equipment. But that can be expensive.  Instead, you
could help pay to protect a growing forest, because it sucks
carbon dioxide out of the air. Or you could pay a farmer to
capture methane from a pond of pig waste.  The market for these
so-called greenhouse gas "offsets" is growing, and people are
angling to come up with new kinds of offsets. One potential
bumper crop lies in the state's huge agricultural heartland —
the San Joaquin Valley, a place where biologist When