Energy bill equals opportunity for ag
Farmers and ranchers are choosing to become actively involved because they believe that they will play a key role in harnessing the power of home-grown renewable energy sources and reducing this country’s dependence on fossil fuel.
Montana farmers and ranchers have a critical choice to make now.
We can fall deeper into fossil fuel dependence, losing control of our energy future and our bottom lines as supplies tighten, prices swing, and America’s adversaries exploit our reliance on oil.
Or we can take control of our energy destiny with a comprehensive strategy for clean energy. The Clean Energy Jobs bill now before the U.S. Senate will help us choose that path — toward a cleaner, more stable energy future.
We are choosing to become actively involved because we believe that farmers and ranchers will play a key role in harnessing the power of our Montana-grown renewable energy sources and reducing this country’s dependence on fossil fuel.
A strong national commitment to clean energy and climate solutions will open many opportunities for farmers and ranchers to gain new income to keep their farm and ranch operations viable.
That means real opportunity for Montana’s agricultural communities.
A new study by the University of Tennessee, commissioned by the renewable energy alliance “25 by ’25,” shows that farmers and ranchers in our region can benefit economically from clean energy legislation.
In fact, virtually all major crops grown in the U.S. (including wheat, barley, soybeans, oats and livestock) will see positive returns under a federal clean energy jobs bill.
Indeed, the Clean Energy Jobs bill is stacked with potential benefits for Montana agriculture.
Energy efficiency provisions can save farmers and ranchers a bundle and help us operate more competitively while ambitious clean energy provisions in the bill offer us many ways to earn new income and, at the same time, invest in a more stable energy supply.
Research shows Montana is second only to Texas in wind resources. Farmers and ranchers are already leasing their land for wind farms or installing wind turbines for their own use.
A wind turbine can bring in $3,000 to $5,000 annually on long term (20- to 30-year) contracts. Yet Montana is only 17th or 18th in wind use, partly because we lack adequate transmission and smart grid technologies to enable more wind development.
Clean energy legislation will provide funding and incentives for this so farmers and ranchers can more fully benefit from wind development.
Biofuels production and use in Montana also are growing and will benefit from clean energy legislation.
More and more Montana farmers and ranchers are growing camelina and other oilseed crops to power their tractors, swathers, and combines.
Clean energy legislation will spur growth in biofuels by providing funds or advanced biofuels research and development and deployment. This will compliment and enhance the renewable fuel standard which ensures high volume production of biofuels through ambitious production targets each year until 2022 — 21 billion gallons by 2020.
Farmers — and the climate — can also benefit from carbon sequestration opportunities included in the legislation. Our agricultural and forest lands “sequester” — or store — 246 million metric tons of carbon annually. By soaking carbo n out of the atmosphere while earning additional farm income, these lands can play an important role in stabilizing the climate.
Passing bold energy and climate legislation now means that, in addition to opening up new sources of income for America’s farmers and developing more stable homegrown energy supplies, we may be able to significantly lower the costs associated with the worst effects of climate change on agriculture.
Some don’t believe climate change is real and that the costs to respond will be too great. But already we’re starting to see its effect through increased droughts, weeds, diseases and pests. The cost of inaction for farmers and the nation is too great to make “waiting” an option.
We need Congress to act so that we can address our energy and climate challenges in a way that benefits our rural economies.
That is why we are getting involved. Please join us in encouraging Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester to pass a strong Clean Energy Jobs bill this year.
Bill Woodhouse farms near Power and owns Woodhouse Products; Bob Quinn owns Quinn Farm, which raises organic wheat and other grains near Big Sandy; Chuck Merja is co-owner of Merja Brothers Farm near Sun River and past president of state and national grain-grower associations; and David Oien is a farmer and cofounder of Timeless Seeds, with facilities in Ulm and near Conrad.
