Views from the Cab

By David Tollefson, Columnist

That’s the headline at DTN/The Progressive Farmer Online Tuesday August 16, 2022.

A sub-title is “Corn Growers, Others Praise Ag Investments as Biden Signs Inflation Reduction Act.”

Here are some details, in part, written by Chris Clayton of DTN:

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill focusing on climate change and health care that includes significant spending for USDA conservation and rural renewable energy programs.

The $739 billion overall spending act includes $369 billion for various programs tied to renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gases throughout the economy.  The climate provisions in the law will help lower U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Biden, in signing the law, called the bill, “The most aggressive action ever, ever, ever, ever in confronting climate crisis and strengthening our energy security.”

Biden said the law would lead to 9 million new jobs in “clean energy manufacturing,” including solar and wind farms, hydrogen projects and electric batteries and vehicles.

The president also pointed to the 15% minimum corporate income tax, saying “wealthy and big corporations will finally begin to pay part of their fair share.”

The legislation faced unanimous opposition from congressional Republicans.  Among the complaints, GOP lawmakers said the spending on USDA programs will make it harder to negotiate a farm bill next year.

The $19.5 billion for USDA conservation programs will incentivize more farmers to adopt cropping and livestock practices that reduce greenhouse emissions, reduce nitrogen loss or sequester carbon in the soil.

“Through this legislation, Congress and the administration recognize that farmers’ voluntary climate-smart agricultural practices are an important part of addressing climate change,” said Brooke Appleton, vice president of public policy for the Nation Corn Growers Association (NCGA).  “We are also particularly pleased to see Congress and the administration acknowledge that low-carbon bio fuels like ethanol are needed to help decarbonize transportation and improve energy security.”

Some of the harshest criticism of the law, though, came from the Center For Food Safety, which lashed out at climate-smart agricultural investment as only a small portion of funding, though the funds give Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “a blank check.”  The law boosts spending on bio fuels, which the CFS noted are mainly produced from genetically engineered corn.  “So, in reality, this provision is just more subsidies for GMO technology.”

With all of that, CFS said it “is profoundly disappointed in the IRA’s failure to seriously address urgently needed reform of the U.S. industrial agriculture system.  No solution to the climate crisis will be sufficient without such reform.”

CLIMATE-SMART AG

Among the top spending items for USDA:

-Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), $8.45 billion.

-Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), $4.95 billion.

-Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), $3.25 billion.

-Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), $1.4 billion.

Another $1 billion will go to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for technical assistance to producers.  USDA will also receive $300 million to quantify carbon sequestration and emissions on farms.

Another $5 billion will be used for forest management, including about $2.15 billion for funding to reduce dead wood and other vegetation that would be fuel for forest fires.  Another $2.75 billion will go toward urban areas and other non-federal forests to develop incentives such as carbon sequestration in those areas.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Renewable energy programs through USDA overall will receive $13.3 billion.  Rural electric cooperatives will receive $9.7 billion for loans to build out renewable energy infrastructure with specific language on “zero-emission systems” and carbon capture programs.

The Renewable Energy for America Program will receive $1.7 billion to boost small-scale renewable energy projects in rural areas.

Bio fuels will see another $500 million to develop blender pumps and other infrastructure to increase the blends of bio fuels above 10% blend levels for ethanol and 20% for bio diesel blends.

The law also extends the $1-per-gallon bio diesel and renewable diesel tax credit though 2024. The $1.01-per-gallon second-generation bio fuels tax credit also is extended through 2024.

“This bill puts ethanol on a sustainable path for growth and investment,” said Geoff Cooper, president of the Renewable Fuels Association. “Several provisions within this bill are very important to the U.S. bio fuels industry and will result in American families having greater access to low-carbon, more affordable, domestically made renewable fuels.”

Another $1 billion goes for loans for electric generation from renewable energy resources for rural and non-rural power companies.  This includes solar, wind, hydro power, biomass, or geothermal. The federal government would cover up to 50% of the loans for such projects.

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From the same time frame as the above story on DTN Ag is a story referencing the shrinking Rhine River, which many of you know runs northwest from Switzerland through Germany, France and the Netherlands into the North Sea.

In September of 2019 I was in Germany visiting our son Kevin and family who live in Frankfort.  One of the highlights of that visit was a beautiful Sunday cruise on that very Rhine River.  I’m not sure how many miles we rode on that boat on that 820-mile river, but I’d be surprised if it were 50 miles.  I do not recall seeing anything to indicate that the river was high or low in comparison to averages.  

I do recall that we were going upstream against the current, which to me was significant, as a stationary object like a buoy showed a fairly strong current going around it.

Quoting the article by Mary Kennedy says “The lack of freight capacity on the Rhine affects the entire economy, as many other goods cannot be transported or delivered.”

It was interesting to me on that cruise watching other non-pleasure boat traffic, including fuel ships and other commercial traffic.  Not all of them were going in the same direction that we were.  

On that note, also on that cruise, we noticed all the vineyards on both sides of the river.  It was amazing to me how those vineyards just clung to those steep hillsides.  

A very memorable trip, indeed.

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Please contact David Tollefson with thoughts or comments on this or future columns at: adtollef@hcinet.net