Biofuels, farm bill among main concerns in campaign
Agriculture and alternative fuels are issues that will influence the U.S. Senate campaign in Missouri as gasoline prices approach $3 per gallon and small farmers struggle against larger corporations to keep their independence.
Although the two leading candidates disagree about a mandated animal identification system and whether to draft a 2007 farm bill, both agree that the United States needs to look into using crops for alternative fuels.
As a member of the Senate Energy Committee and co-chairman of the Senate Biofuels Caucus, Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., said he supports expanding the use of alternative fuels. He helped pass legislation to add a renewable fuel standard to the energy bill that created a seven-year plan to increase the amount of renewable fuel in the gasoline supply from 4 billion gallons to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. He worked on tax credit incentives of up to 30 percent through 2008 for gas stations that switch their petroleum pumps to fueling systems that are 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent petroleum.
Talent said increasing the production and use of ethanol and biodiesel will directly increase fuel supplies and reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill also says alternative fuels are essential to the U.S. economy and independence from foreign oil. She first started working to support alternative fuels in 1988, when a bill was introduced to the Missouri House of Representatives to lower taxes on gasoline that contains ethanol.
“I realized way back then that we needed to begin weening ourselves from oil, and we needed to move toward alternative fuels,” McCaskill said.
The United States should be looking into multiple forms of renewable energy such as ethanol, biomass and wind and solar energy, she said. These resources, unlike oil and coal, are inexhaustible, and including these resources in the fuel supply will create a more stable and secure energy system, she said.
“The United States has plenty of natural wind, especially in the Midwest,” she said. “It is an extremely under-utilized resource that could be providing a lot of energy.”
McCaskill said another big problem is that people who want to use alternative resources have to locate resources that are not readily available. She said the U.S. government needs to put more pressure on gas companies to provide alternative fuel at their pumps as well as encourage the development of cars that are compatible with alternative fuels.
“In the energy bill ... the oil companies got the steak dinner, and the ethanol producers got the saltine crackers,” she said.
The Senate could start drafting a new 2007 farm bill because the current Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 will expire in 2007.
Talent is a member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, which held a hearing July 17 in Cape Girardeau to find out what farmers would like to see in a new farm bill.
During the hearing, Terry Hilgedick, president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association, said renewable energy needs to be included in a new farm bill because it has revitalized rural economies.
“The wave of renewable fuels growth has been a God-send for rural America,” Hilgedick said. “The rural economy is providing more opportunity for U.S. farmers through self-reliant energy development.”
At the hearing, Hilgedick said he’d prefer an extension of the 2002 Farm Bill to see how World Trade Organization negotiations played out, but he still says renewable energy is what the United States should be focusing on in its next bill.
“The demand for corn created by the ethanol industry will influence corn prices more substantially than will any increased exports resulting from the WTO agreement,” Hilgedick said. “More needs to be done to foster domestic market access rather than dealing with all-too-fickle foreign markets.”
Talent introduced legislation that would extend the current farm bill until the U.S. implements any legislation from the Doha Development Round of the WTO negotiations, which have been suspended because countries cannot agree on market access and domestic support for agriculture. Doha negotiations started in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar, when representatives from WTO countries met to discuss issues including agriculture.
Talent said he would prefer to know how negotiations with the WTO would influence a new farm bill before drafting the bill. Talent said an extension is also necessary to send a message to the world that the U.S. will not dismantle its farm program simply because an agreement is not reached with the WTO.
“There’s a danger that other countries might believe that we would undercut the programs over which they’re negotiating,” Talent said.
Hilgedick said he also would prefer an extension of the 2002 farm bill because it is hard to create agriculture policy without knowing how the world market will function.
Talent said he wants to work on a farm bill that will support small family farms. He says the United States needs to prevent trade barriers and subsidies that hurt the United States, while also increasing demand for U.S. products throughout the world through economic growth.
“We produce so many crops, we lose money if we do not have ways to export them,” Talent said.
McCaskill is in favor of a 2007 farm bill that ensures fair prices and open competition and focuses on small farms and rural communities. She said that though WTO negotiations are important, she would like to see a 2007 farm bill that focuses solely on American farmers and is not influenced by WTO negotiations.
Talent wants to work toward a system that would help identify diseased animals as they move throughout processing.
McCaskill does not support a mandated animal identification system because it would increase costs for small family farms, but she does support a voluntary system for farmers who want to participate.