With the possible exception of the ski industry, it's hard to think of any sector of the economy that will be hit harder by global warming than agriculture. A report out last week from scientists at 13 government agencies found that climate change is happening more quickly than we thought and that by the end of the century, many farmers will face scorching summer weather, severe storms, prolonged drought and swarms of new insects.

Given those prospects, you might expect the farm lobby to be in the vanguard of those pushing for enactment of legislation to cap the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere.

and

All of these concessions were hammered out last weekend among Collin Peterson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and fellow Democrats Henry Waxman and Ed Markey, the chief sponsors of the climate-change bill. The House leadership and the White House acquiesced; the press conference was duly held. And what was the result?

Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation and the self-proclaimed "voice of agriculture," yesterday urged all House members to vote against the climate-change bill, claiming it would "result in a net economic cost to farmers with little or no environmental benefit."

The next time the world's most selfish lobby comes to Washington demanding drought relief, someone ought to have the good sense to tell them to go pound sand.

Read it all here.

Posted by Don Carr at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Filed under ethanol, subsidy

For Immediate Release: June 16, 2009

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2009 - The US Geological Survey reported today that nutrient loading in the Gulf of Mexico will be among the highest measured in the past 30 years. This news underscores how decades of broken funding promises are a big reason why agriculture is a leading cause of pollution in American lakes, rivers, and streams.

News of $270 million in proposed cuts to the U.S. Agriculture Department's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) calls into question Congress's commitment to solving agricultural pollution's serious and growing risk to the environment. With the threat of a record Gulf "Dead Zone," now is not the time to cut conservation funding.

-- Wild lands are being plowed under to produce nutrient intensive crops to meet increased demand for food and fuel.

-- Progress in reducing soil erosion has stalled since 1997.

-- Advanced soil, nutrient, livestock, and organic practices remain the exception rather than the rule in the United States.

-- Agriculture has the potential to be carbon neutral, yet the Congressional Research Service reported that agriculture is currently sequestering only enough carbon to offset less than 5 percent of agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions each year.

"Today's USGS release clearly demonstrates the danger agriculture poses to America's waterways without adequate conservation programs in place to mitigate the damage," said Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group Midwest Vice President.

"It is wholly inconsistent, at best, to cut EQIP year after year while simultaneously arguing that voluntary programs are the only way agriculture can be expected to protect our soil, water, air, and wildlife. The weaknesses of a purely voluntary approach to solving long-standing conservation problems is becoming more apparent everyday. This is no time to weaken the EQIP program," Cox concluded.

Thankfully, some conservation programs escaped cuts. The appropriations mark up conducted by the House subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies spared the Wetlands Preserve Program (WRP), Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program (FRPP) and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) from any cuts.

Go here for the full USGS report.

# # #

Posted by Don Carr at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Filed under dead zone, eqip, ethanol

From Allison Williams at the Virginia Daily News:

Cox is one of dozens of people who bought fuel suspected of containing excessive levels of ethanol, a plant-based fuel source that has lower pollution emissions than standard petroleum products.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs has received a wave of complaints from Hampton Roads residents who believe they have purchased tainted gasoline in recent days, prompting an investigation at gas stations in Isle of Wight, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk, said Elaine Lidholm, the agency's spokeswoman.

As of Thursday morning, the VDACA had received more than 150 complaints this week. Lidholm did not know if any Peninsula gas retailers showed up in the complaints that came in Friday.

In may, the Environmental Working Group sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson laying out EWG's concerns that raising the ethanol blend limit could have an adverse impact on engines.

Despite evidence to the contrary, the leading ethanol lobby group, Growth Energy, continues to claim:

Cars and trucks on the road today can run on higher blends of ethanol without modifications.

Posted by Don Carr at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Filed under ethanol

During yesterday's RFS 2 hearing, the testimony of a representative from Valero veered from the standard ethanol industry message on the EPA rule on ethanol production emmissions and inderict land use calculations.

From Phil Brasher at the Des Moines Register:

The newest big player in ethanol, Valero Energy Corp., is not on the same team as the rest of the industry when it comes to measuring the greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels.

and

At an EPA public hearing on Tuesday, a Valero representative endorsed the agency's emission assessments. But he said the assessments were irrelevant to the company since existing ethanol plants will not be required to meet the emission targets to qualify for the usage mandates. [emphasis added] Valero, one of the nation's largest oil refiners, is now both a user and supplier of ethanol, having recently acquired seven ethanol plants from VeraSun Energy. Four of the plants are in Iowa.

Valero's John Braeutigam said the company knew when it acquired the plants that they were exempt from the emission targets, ensuring that "there would be a market for their production."

Recall that EWG Midwest VP Craig Cox made the same point in his recent op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It makes us wonder what the industry is really trying to achieve through their massive PR offensive against an RFS rule that they can largely ignore since essentially all their plants are grandfathered in.

Posted by Don Carr at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Filed under corn, ethanol, rfs

Environmental Working Group Midwest Vice President Craig Cox has analyzed how much money states will lose if Congress goes along with President Obama's budget proposal to short the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) by $250 million in 2010:

State by State Funding Cuts, Part Deux

States to Lose Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Funding

President Obama's proposed 2010 fiscal year budget continues the long string of broken promises that have left conservation programs billions short over the past two farm bills. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) takes the biggest hit, falling $250 million short of the funding promised in the 2008 farm bill.

EWG analyzed the shortfalls in EQIP funding that states will suffer if the cuts if Congress goes along with the cuts proposed in the President's budget.1 Fourteen states stand to lose over $6 million each in 2010 EQIP funding. The five states that stand to lose the most EQIP funding are Texas (-$22.4 million), California (-$15.5 million), Colorado (-$10.0 million), Minnesota (-$8.1 million), and Nebraska (-$8.0 million).

"Congress has a chance to break the long string of broken promises that have left conservation programs billions short over the past two farm bills," said Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group Vice President. "We still have a long way to go to reduce soil erosion, water pollution, and declining wildlife habitat on agricultural land and global warming will make these long-standing problems much harder to solve. Meanwhile, as conservation programs are chronically under-funded, commodity programs and biofuels still receive billions in federal assistance. Congress must reverse the conservation program cuts proposed in President Obama's budget and deliver the funding promised in the 2008 farm bill," Cox said.

In addition, last week EWG released Seizing a Watershed Moment, which looked at the targeting of EQIP funds in the Mississippi River Basin.

Posted by Don Carr at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Filed under conservation, eqip

Did you know that agriculture is the leading source of water pollution across the country? ¹

Or that every spring, farm fertilizer and manure runoff kills marine life in an 8,000 square mile area of the Gulf of Mexico? ²

Bet you didn't know that despite the seriousness and scale of the problem, there are few and limited federal policy controls on water pollution from farms.

To solve these longstanding challenges, the federal government still relies on a voluntary policy approach that centers on paying farmers to do the right thing.

A federal Farm Bill program called EQIP ³ sends about $1 billion every year to farmers nationwide, paying up to 75 percent of the cost of practices that protect the environment and are good for the farmer's bottom line.

However, in our new report on EQIP in the 10 states that border the Mississippi River, EWG found that EQIP funds are not being channeled to projects that hold the most promise for alleviating local water pollution and shrinking the Gulf's so-called "Dead Zone."

The reality is, there's never going to be enough taxpayer money to help all farmers reduce their environmental impact. Year after year, Congress strips money from agricultural conservation programs.

Congress and the President's Agriculture Department can accomplish much more with limited taxpayer funds by first fully funding EQIP, then targeting funds toward projects designed to clean up specific streams, rivers and lakes.

The voluntary approach to farm pollution has a shot at working if the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

1. Sets environmental goals for the EQIP program
2. Figures out which polluted water bodies are the priorities for cleanup 
3. Designs watershed-scale water quality projects to achieve those goals

But if USDA continues to delay effective action on the rising toll of agricultural water pollution, we have to start talking about regulations.

Posted by Michelle Perez at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Hill newspaper published its annual list of Washington DC's top lobbyists. EWG's president and co-founder Ken Cook made the top lobbyist list for grassroots:

The support of their own grassroots networks combined with their own legislative acumen give the following people an edge as they fight for their causes on Capitol Hill.

Ken Cook, Environmental Working Group. Cook has challenged the orthodoxy that biofuels are by definition good for the environment.

Posted by Don Carr at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Filed under ethanol.