Oregon Public Broadcasting

Seven of Oregon’s greenhouse businesses signed a commitment Thursday morning to cut their greenhouse gases.

A partnership among the Oregon Association of Nurseries, the Oregon Environmental Council, and the state Department of Agriculture intends to guide the businesses toward a smaller carbon footprint with advice and money.

Democratic Congressman Kurt Schrader represents the district with some of the country's most productive nurseries.

Kurt Schrader: “If we’re going to make investments of precious taxpayer dollars, let’s make sure that we can actually get results – and here, we’re doing that. We’re going to be measuring – reduced greenhouse gas emissions, lower costs to the industry, and hopefully greater output at the end of the day.”

Much of the money comes from two federal sources – the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency.

The three-year effort will first establish a carbon emission baseline. Next year, the nurseries will get advice on what they can do to reduce those emissions.

In 2011, they’ll report back on how well those steps worked.