Archives for the 'Renewable Energy / Climate Change' Category
USDA Grants for Renewable Energy Systems Feasibility Studies
Friday, August 6th, 2010
On Friday, August 6, USDA announced that $3 million in FY2010 funding is available for grants to conduct feasibility studies for renewable energy systems for agriculture producers and rural small businesses. The grants are part of the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). Grant applications must be submitted to your state Rural Development office by 4:30 pm on October 5, 2010.
The grant applications must be from the agricultural producer or rural small business that is the prospective owner of the renewable energy system, not from the entity conducting the feasibility study who is not the owner. The maximum funding for a single grant is $750,000.
In the application selection process, grants of smaller amounts for small agricultural producers and small rural businesses will be given a higher priority.
More information on the required application contents and process for applying is provided in the Federal Register notice available here.
Legislative Roundup: Farm Credit Funding Passes, Other Food and Farm Legislation Could Move
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
[Friday July 30 update to story below -- A measure to fund the Pigford II class action settlement between USDA and black farmers is now expected to come to the Senate floor early next week as a stand alone measure. The Food Safety Modernization Act (S 510) is now not expected to be taken up before the Senate leaves for summer recess at the end of next week, though it may come to the floor in September. Whether the Senate takes up the child nutrition reauthorization bill next week is still an open question.]
As is often the case as the summer congressional recess approaches, there is lots of activity on Capitol Hill. With so many moving pieces of interest to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and NSAC member organizations, we are issuing this brief update.
Supplemental Appropriation – Farm Credit Funding, BCAP Cut
On Tuesday, July 27, the House approved a $59 billion war supplemental spending bill by a vote of 308-114 and sent it to the President for his signature. The bill includes $950 million in Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm loan program funding to help meet emergency farm lending needs. The loan funding and several other USDA-related provisions are offset by a $50 million funding cut to the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). NSAC was a strong proponent of the farm loan funding and the offset.
The war supplemental has been pending for months. The bill has bounced back and forth between the House and the Senate, with major disputes centering around how many emergency domestic spending initiatives to tie to the war and foreign aid spending, the centerpiece of the bill. In the end, the Senate’s smaller domestic package prevailed.
The bill includes $33 billion for war operations, $6 billion in foreign aid, $5 billion for domestic disaster relief, and $13 billion in mandatory funding to help Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
The NSAC-supported credit package includes $350 million for direct farm operating loans, $300 million for guaranteed farm ownership loans, $250 million for guaranteed farm operating loans, and $50 million for subsidized guaranteed farm operating loans.
The limitation placed on BCAP, an important farm bill renewable energy program, is warranted in our view based on runaway spending and misplaced priorities, as this program was being implemented by the FSA. With a cap on program spending, the agency will need to continue to give thought to focusing the program to support the most important biomass crop projects possible.
Pigford Settlement Funding
Included in the most recent House-passed version of the supplemental appropriations bill, but deleted from the final product, was $1.15 billion for the Pigford II settlement between USDA and black farmers. That measure was originally attached to a tax extender bill that has not made it through the legislative gauntlet yet, and then it was stuck onto the supplemental in the House.
Now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he will try to add the Pigford settlement funding, and another class action settlement between American Indians and the Department of the Interior over the government’s mishandling of trust accounts, onto a small business bill the Senate is considering on the floor this week. It is not yet clear whether this third attempt to find a vehicle for the two settlement accounts will be successful. NSAC supports the funding and the quickest possible resolution of the matter.
Ag Disaster Aid
Speaking of the small business bill, Senate Agriculture Chair, Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), has secured the agreement of the Majority Leader to attach her emergency agricultural disaster funding measure to the small business legislation. That measure was also attached to the tax extender bill earlier in the year, but now is seeking a potentially faster moving vehicle. A vote is expected later this week.
The measure includes $1 billion for bonus direct commodity payments for farmers who suffered a greater than 5 percent loss in production, a provision that has proved controversial, yet remains in play. The measure also includes specific disaster funding for cottonseed, aquaculture, Hawaiian sugar, livestock, and specialty crop producers.
Food Safety and Child Nutrition Bills
As regular readers will know, food safety and child nutrition reauthorization legislation has been chugging along slowly for the past two years. With time running out on this session of Congress, it is not yet clear if a way will be found to pass these bills and get them signed into law this year. The measures are both among the most bipartisan bills pending in Congress, which, all other things being equal, should improve their chances of passage. Nonetheless, netiher has proceeded smoothly, and both are looking for Senate floor time before the August recess begins.
The Senate food safety bill (S. 510) was voted out of Committee late last year, but has been stalled since then due to behind the scenes negotiations over amendments ranging from family farms and local food systems, to banning the use of the chemical additive BPA in food containers, to the re-importation of drugs from Canada.
The House passed it’s companion bill a year ago and has been waiting for final Senate action before they can proceed to a conference committee to settle on the final form of the legislation. Even if the Senate passes a bill soon, it is unclear whether enough time remains in this session for what could be a long conference negotiation.
The pending Managers Amendment to the Senate bill contains a number of provisions strongly supported by NSAC. NSAC also supports two amendments still being negotiated by Senator Brown (D-OH) and Senator Tester (D-MT), though we will withhold final judgment until negotiated text is closer to being agreed upon.
A child nutrition bill was approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee in March and a companion bill by the House Education and Labor Committee in July. Both bills include mandatory funding for the Farm to School program. The Senate bill costs $4.5 billion over 10 years and is paid for through offsets, including the controversial proposed cut to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The House bill costs $8 billion over 10 years, but House Democratic leadership is still in the process of looking for funding offsets and have thankfully indicated to us they will not scale back farm bill conservation programs to pay for the child nutrition increase.
While further House action on the bill is not likely until September, Senate Majority Reid said this week that he would explore whether floor time might be made available for the Senate nutrition bill. Senator Lincoln intends to take to the floor each day to explain to her colleagues the importance of taking up the bill. Her floor statement from Tuesday, July 27 is posted here.
We will continue to provide readers with new information on the food safety and child nutrition bills as it becomes available.
Senate Deliberates On Rural Development and Energy in the Farm Bill
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
On Wednesday, July 21, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry convened to hear from several witnesses regarding rural development and the farm bill. The hearing centered on the potential benefits of alternative fuels production and research both for developing rural communities and for strengthening national security. A list of witnesses and a link to an audio replay is available here.
Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) commenced the hearing with an optimistic forecast of job creation and reduced dependence on foreign oil, both of which she said will stem from a growing rural enthusiasm to play a role in reviving the national economy and ensuring energy security.
USDA Rural Development Undersecretary Dallas Tonsager showed support for fuel diversification, which he identified as an opportunity for investment in rural communities. Accordingly, increasing confidence in the advanced biofuel industry has become a primary goal for the USDA.
The Committee warned against bureaucratic attempts to “improve legislation” and encouraged the USDA to coordinate with multiple agencies, such as the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, to ensure that energy regulations do not inhibit rural development.
Growth Energy Co-Chair General Wesley Clark strongly emphasized the effects that energy independence will have for job creation and national security. “We do not need to be spending $300 billion a year on foreign oil,” Clark asserted.
Clark strongly advocated for the diversion of a portion of the ethanol blender’s tax credit toward development of ethanol infrastructure—namely blender pumps, flex-fuel vehicles, ethanol pipelines, and an increased blend wall to E15—to support a strong market for corn-based ethanol. “We have to work on the demand side, and the supply side will follow.” According to Clark, once the government provides demand stimulation, market innovation will lead the way toward an advanced renewable energy future.
With respect to the next farm bill, Senator Mike Johanns pointed out that the budget for the Energy Title of the next bill will be only $500 million compared to the $1.9 billion energy title from the 2008 Farm Bill. Johanns questioned how a strong renewable energy and biomass package could be put together with so many fewer dollars.
This hearing was the second of a series that will continue to review the implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill in preparation for the 2012 reauthorization.
House Committee Looks at USDA Rural Development
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
On Tuesday, July 20, the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture held a hearing to assess progress on Rural Development program implementation and hear ideas from the field in advance of the 2012 Farm Bill.
USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager emphasized the “five pillars” the agency believes can staunch rural out-migration and stimulate rural economic growth. He proposed: new export and local and regional markets for agricultural products, broadband, renewable energy production, outdoor recreation that conserves natural resources, and ecosystems markets for rural landowners. Click here to view Tonsager’s testimony.
Tonsager reiterated the Administration’s belief that regional approaches are a more effective way to deliver grant and loan investments, and suggested that Rural Development’s 40 programs might benefit from reorganization and streamlining. He also noted the agency is currently working on a report to Congress that should be ready in a few months concerning possible new “rural” definitions for USDA programs.
The second panel of five private sector and local agency witnesses addressed Rural Development’s housing, broadband, and business and cooperative programs. NSAC was invited to provide a witness on the panel, a seat at the table filled very well by Van Ayers, who sits on the Board of one of NSAC’s member groups, the Delta Land and Community in Arkansas, and is an Agriculture and Rural Development Specialist with University of Missouri Extension.
Ayers’ testimony concentrated on ways to make particular Rural Development programs more accessible to the farmers and ranchers. He addressed the Value-Added Producer Grants program, the Rural Energy for America Program, and the Community Facilities program. Ayers also suggested the creation of a national “enterprise facilitators” program to do the organizing and training necessary for producers to design successful rural businesses and access federal funds to support them.
One clear and consistent message from all the witnesses was that Rural Development should simplify and coordinate the application process for its programs. Chairman McIntyre noted that all the USDA staff had left the hearing before they could hear this message but promised that Subcommittee staff would pursue the issue with the Agency.
Climate Change Letter Delivered to Senators
Friday, July 16th, 2010
The passage of climate change and energy legislation in this Congress is still an open question. Proposals range in scope from the American Clean Energy and Security Act – a comprehensive energy and climate bill passed by the House in 2009 but stalled in the Senate – to a narrow bill focused only on the BP oil spill and offshore drilling.
This week a letter addressed to Senate leadership and signed by over 75 organizations with farmer, rancher and rural supporters, was delivered by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition to Senate offices. The organizations call for the passage in this Congress of comprehensive climate change and energy legislation that includes agriculture.
The letter emphasized that our nation’s farmers and ranchers will be among those most adversely affected by unpredictable weather patterns, increasing storm intensity, shifts in the distribution of pests, and other results of rapid climate change. Climate change legislation should include measures for them to establish sustainable and organic farming systems that will help them cope with the impacts of rapid climate change. These sustainable and organic farming systems have also been demonstrated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester soil carbon. In addition, the letter noted the importance of Senate support for USDA conservation programs that provide research, technical assistance and financial incentives that address climate change mitigation and adaptation.
An NSAC press release about the letter is posted here.
CBO Examines Federal Funding for Biofuels
Friday, July 16th, 2010
A Congressional Budget Office report issued on Wednesday, July 14 examines the costs to taxpayers of achieving national energy goals for different types of biofuel. The report was requested by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure of the Senate Committee on Finance. He is also the Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
The primary focus of the Report was the cost to taxpayers of a $0.45 per gallon tax credit for ethanol blended into gasoline, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC). The VEETC is scheduled to expire at the end of 2010 and its extension is being hotly debated in Congress. The report concluded that in 2009 the VEETC, along with a tax credit of $0.10 for small ethanol producers, cost taxpayers about $5.16 billion in decreased federal revenue because of the application of the tax credit to about 10.8 billion gallons of ethanol blended with gasoline.
Almost all this U.S. ethanol is produced from corn starch. When compared to the tax credits for per gallon for cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel, corrected to the amount of energy produced by a gallon of gasoline, the cost to the taxpayer of corn ethanol per gallon is lower because the size of the tax credits for cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel are higher.
The Report also indicated that the replacement of petroleum-based fuel by corn starch ethanol, if produced using natural gas, did reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but at a much higher cost than the replacement of petroleum by cellulosic ethanol or biodiesel. This difference was attributed to high levels of GHGs from the natural gas and coal used to produce inputs and cultivate corn and to process corn for ethanol. The calculation ignored the impact on GHGs of indirect land use changes that might occur if uncultivated land is broken out to replace the corn diverted to biofuels. The Report reached the general conclusion that the costs of reducing GHG emissions through biofuel tax credits is higher than the costs resulting from imposing a price on the emissions through a cap-and-trade system or a tax on GHG emissions.
Although there will likely be debate about assumptions and variables used in the Report, the political message was clear. Upon release of the Report, Senator Bingaman issued a press release citing the Report’s findings as a reason for not extending the VEETC.
This message about the direct ethanol subsidy was heard by at least part of the corn ethanol sector. On July 15, Growth Energy, a major lobbying organization for the corn ethanol industry, called for a change in ethanol policy that it said would “level the playing field” with subsidies for the petroleum industry.” The proposal is to:
• End the VEETC but redirect the federal funding to provide for the build out of distribution infrastructure for ethanol – such as tax credits for retailers to install 200,000 blender pumps and federal backing of ethanol pipelines; and
• Require that all automobiles sold in the U.S. be flex-fuel vehicles – as many as 120 million. These cars could use hydrous ethanol and higher blends of ethanol with gasoline.
This change in position is not unexpected, given that gasoline refiners have begun buying up ethanol production facilities. An example is Valero’s acquisition of a number of ethanol facilities owned by Vera Sun, a bankrupt ethanol refining company. Valero is the number one refiner of gasoline in the U.S. Another example is the announcement that Verenium Corp. is selling its cellulosic biofuels business to BP Biofuels North America. Both Valero and BP own gas stations across the U.S. It is likely that vertically integrated refiners with their own fuel stations will be quite willing to have federal funding subsidize their delivery and marketing of ethanol from corn or any other source.
An alternative proposal to ponder — phase out public subsidies for corn ethanol and petroleum and replace them with improved public subsidies for low carbon energy sources and regional public transit systems, serving both rural and urban areas.
Noble on EPA Ag Advisory Committee
Friday, June 4th, 2010
On June 3, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the 29 new members of the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee for its 2010-2012 term.
We are proud to say that Martha Noble, NSAC Senior Policy Associate, has been renamed to the panel for a second term. Noble is a lawyer and NSAC’s policy specialist on agriculture and environment issues. She serves as vice-chair for the Agricultural Management Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources and as an Executive Committee member of the Clean Water Network’s Board of Directors.
The new committee chairman will be Steve Balling, the Director for Agriculture and Analytic Services for Del Monte Foods, known best for developing the company’s IPM program. Balling takes over leading the committee from outgoing chairman Jim Moseley.
Other members include North Dakota Farmers Union President Robert Carlson, Ann Sorenson with American Farmland Trust, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, Gabriela Chavarria, Science Center director for Natural Resources Defense Council, Dennis Treacy of Smithfield Foods, Texas Mexico Border Coalition Chair Omar Garza, and Janis McFarland with Syngenta.
The members were selected from applicants who responded to a request for applications published last November.
According to EPA, “The FRRCC is a policy-oriented committee that provides policy advice, information, and recommendations to the Administrator on a range of environmental issues and policies that are of importance to agriculture and rural communities. The FRRCC addresses specific topics of relevance to agriculture as identified by the Agricultural Counselor to the Administrator, and reports its policy advice and recommendations to the EPA Administrator through the Agricultural Counselor.”
The Committee meets at least twice a year. Copies of recommendation letters sent by the committee to EPA can be accessed here.
Farm Bill Hearings to Commence In Senate
Friday, June 4th, 2010
This Tuesday, June 1, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman, Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) announced that the Committee will begin hearings on the 2012 Farm Bill at the end of this month.
The first hearing will be held in Senate Agriculture Committee Room at 9:30am on June 30, 2010 on the topic of “Maintaining Our Domestic Food Supply through a Strong U.S. Farm Policy.” The dates and times of the three additional hearings on the topics below will be announced in the next few weeks.
- Revitalizing the Rural Economy through Robust Rural Development
- Promoting Conservation Practices that Preserve Our Natural Resources and Wildlife Habitat for Future Generations
- Ensuring Agriculture is Part of Our Nation’s Energy Future
While the Senate planned to begin work on the 2012 farm bill next year, the Committee moved up its plans in response to the early start by the House Agriculture Committee, led by Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN). The House kicked off with a hearing in the Capitol in late April and held a series of eight field hearings on a variety of topics through the first half of May. Opening statements of all the field hearing witnesses, primarily farmers representing the major commodity and livestock associations, are posted on the committee’s website. Chairman Peterson has said he plans to begin writing a bill in early 2011, with hopes of having it on the House floor before the end of the calendar year, a year prior to the end of the current bill.
Funding for Energy Audits and Renewable Energy Development Assistance
Friday, May 28th, 2010
On Thursday, the USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Service announced the availability of $2.4 million dollars in competitive grants for energy audits and renewable energy development assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses as part of the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).
State, tribal, and local governments, universities, rural electric cooperatives, and public power entities are eligible to apply. Applications are due by 4:30 p.m., local time on July 26, 2010. Applications may be submitted electronically at Grants.gov or to your Rural Development State Office. To obtain application materials, or for questions about the application, contact your Rural Development Energy Coordinator — the full list of contacts is available in the Federal Register notice, here.
REAP is composed of several types of grants and guaranteed loan programs. The notice of funds referenced above is the second of three stages of implementation. The first notice in late April announced $87 million in grants and loan guarantees for projects to develop and/or construct renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. The application process for these grants will remain open until June 30, 2010.
The final piece to be implemented will be grants for the study of renewable energy feasibility. The Federal Register notice also notes that the Agency intends to publish a proposed rule on REAP that will revise the current program to include these renewable energy feasibility study grants, and add a new section on the energy audit and renewable energy development assistance grants.
USDA Announces 2010 CSP Application Deadline
Monday, May 10th, 2010
USDA announced today that farmers and ranchers have until June 11 to submit applications to enroll in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) this year. The brief application form can be filed at a local NRCS service center.
After submitting the application, farmers will be scheduled for a follow-up meeting with NRCS to complete the CSP Conservation Management Tool (CMT), a set of questions that help to determine the producer’s current conservation practices (also known as the conservation baseline) as well as their scheduled improvements.
Once the applicants from the June 11th round have completed the CMT, NRCS will rank the proposals and use this ranking to make offers for the 2010 sign-up.
Prior to the 2009 cut-off date last year, applications for over 33 million acres worth of land were submitted, from which NRCS selected 12.8 million acres of the best applications for enrollment.
The ranking process this year will occur early in the summer, followed by field verifications and then contract finalization for those chosen for enrollment.
Combined with the 12.8 million acres enrolled in the 2009 sign-up, CSP enrollment will stand at 25.6 million acres by this fall. The first CSP payments for both the 2009 and 2010 enrollees will occur in October 2010.
Today’s USDA announcement comes in advance of the issuance of the final rule for the CSP. The program operated under an interim final rule in 2009. Important changes to the rule are expected, and therefore farmers will be granted an opportunity to re-assess whether to keep their application pending once the final rule is issued. NSAC expects most of the rule changes to be improvements relative to the interim rule.
Improvements are also expected for the CMT. Those will likely be announced soon and, once finalized, will be posted on the NRCS CSP webpage.
USDA expects the final rule to be issued prior to the June 11 application cut-off point.
Also expected soon is a report on the 2009 sign-up, which is just now being finalized with the signing of the last few contracts.
NSAC issued a much-used Farmers Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program for the 2009 enrollment period. The handy guidebook will be revised and re-issued as soon as USDA issues the revised 2010 CMT and the final rule for the program.
Background on CSP
The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is a comprehensive working lands conservation program established by the 2008 Farm Bill to provide technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers to actively manage and maintain existing conservation systems and to implement additional conservation activities on land in agricultural production. CSP targets funding to:
- Address particular resources of concern in a given watershed, region, or state
- Assist farmers and ranchers to improve soil, water, and air quality
- Provide increased biodiversity and wildlife and pollinator habitat
- Sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change
- Conserve water and energy.
The 2008 Farm Bill authorized a new nationwide, continuous sign-up for CSP which means farmers and ranchers anywhere in the country are now able to apply for the CSP any year and at any time of the year. Periodically during the year, as will occur after the June 11th cut off in 2010, NRCS ranks applications and develops contracts with those farmers and ranchers with the highest rankings until funding for that ranking period is completely allocated.
Crop, pasture, range, and private non-industrial forest land is eligible for the program. Enrollment acreage is allocated to individual states in proportion to the amount of agricultural land in the state relative to the national total.
CSP is unique among federal farm conservation programs in many ways, including its higher natural resource and environmental standards for participation, its dual reward structure for actively managing existing conservation activity and for adopting new conservation efforts, special payments for diversification trough adoption of resource-conserving crop rotations, and its innovative use of a CMT to measure and compensate for environmental benefits and ecosystem services.
With the funding provided in the 2008 Farm Bill for CSP, over 50 million acres of land will be enrolled in the program before the expiration of that farm bill at the end of 2012.
We plan to post again on this program as CMT and rule changes are announced by USDA in the coming weeks. To stay abreast of this and other news from NSAC, sign up for our weekly news round-up.