The West Virginia Senate has rejected 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 voted 18-16 Wednesday against passing , which would create a Division of Forestry-administered forest carbon registry to track properties covered by carbon offset agreements.
The vote took place on the final day for bills to pass out of their houses of origin during the 2025 regular legislative session, effectively stopping the legislation.
SB 730 was 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 730 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.
“[W]hat about the property owner that wants to engage in this agreement and make money off his timberland in this way?†Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, asked during a Senate floor debate on SB 730 prior to its narrow rejection. “Why are we depriving that person from making money on his property or her property?â€
Bill opponent said it ‘grows government’
SB 730’s lead sponsor, Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, defended the bill during the floor debate, arguing the forest carbon registry it would create would “ensure the transparency and accountability†of forest carbon resource management in West Virginia.
Sen. Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, speaks during the Senate’s floor session on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.
Senate Judiciary Committee Vice Chair Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, debated Tarr, a former Finance Committee chair, on the bill, flagging its potential to impose penalties on landowners and contending that its authorization for the Division of Forestry to establish fees to cover administrative costs of setting up the registry would be akin to taxes.
“It’s an assault on business rights,†Willis said. “It grows government.â€
Bill threatened to suspend business licenses
Per SB 730, 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.
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 bill would constitute a tax increase.
As voted on by the Senate, SB 730 would impose $2,500 and $5,000 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.
Any subsequent offense would result in permanent suspension of the responsible party’s West Virginia business license.
