By Dick Hagen
The Land Staff Writer
July 03, 2008 03:19 am
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Congressman Collin Peterson shared his thoughts with The Land via e-mail on the recently completed farm bill.
Q: After months of wrangling, you finally got a farm bill hatched and confirmed by both houses via overrides of the president’s veto. Are you totally satisfied with the final product?
Peterson: I don’t think that anyone is going to be totally satisfied with a bill as large as the farm bill. When we put the bill together, there were many competing priorities and limited resources to meet many needs. So, I worked with my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate, to make compromises and address the needs of all corners of the country for farm and food policy. At the end of the day, the farm bill we passed preserves and improves the farm safety net, expands conservation spending, funds new programs for fruit and vegetable producers, encourages renewable energy production and improves nutrition programs. No one got everything they wanted, but there is something in this farm bill for everyone to support.
Q: In view of the continuing “food vs. fuel” debates, do you see pressure to back off on the Renewable Fuel Standard quotas already passed and approved?
Peterson: Recently, in the debate about rising price of food, a lot of blame has been heaped on ethanol, but the causes of high food prices are much more complicated and can’t be attributed to a single factor. Those who would like to reduce the RFS mandate have used the situation to push their agenda to scale back the RFS, but most in Congress continue to recognize the importance of ethanol and biodiesel in meeting our nation’s energy needs. I am working with my colleagues to emphasize the importance of a strong renewable fuels industry as we continue to look for solutions that will feed and fuel our nation and the world.
Q: It appears that biofuels will continue to play a role in meeting our nation’s energy needs for the foreseeable future. Would you concur?
Peterson: The farm bill took important steps to prioritize the development of new cellulosic sources for biofuels. Corn-based ethanol and biodiesel from soy will remain an important part of the market, but the next generation of ethanol production is just around the corner. The farm bill includes loan guarantees for biorefineries producing advanced biofuels. It also creates a Biomass Crop Assistance Program that will offer producers incentives to grow, as well as harvest and deliver biomass for bioenergy facilities. This program will help us to begin to understand how to grow and move the feedstocks for the next generation of renewable fuels.
Because corn ethanol will continue to play a role, we included a program to help those existing plants repowering their facilities and cut back on their use of fossil fuels. Finally, the bill increases the tax credit for cellulosic ethanol from $0.51 to $1.01 per gallon to jump-start the industry and provides production incentives for advanced biofuels through the continuation of the bioenergy program.
Q: On the issue of “blender’s credits” — so that motorists could decide at the pump if they wanted 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent, 50 percent or 85 percent ethanol — is that likely to get federal support to assist stations with the infrastructure changeover? If so, what would you favor?
Peterson: There are already two existing provisions to help install infrastructure for renewable fuels. One is a tax credit to help to defray the costs of installation and the other is a new grant program that was a part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The rules still have to be written for the grant program that was in the EISA, so folks will have a chance to voice their support for including blender pump installation in the grant program if funding is made available to carry out this program.
Q: Can you give us an update on the COOL program, and do you see an animal ID program also eventually falling into place?
Peterson: The farm bill included mandatory Country of Origin Labeling for meat and produce, and those regulations will be finalized later this year. This is something that producers and consumers have asked us to implement for years, and we finally accomplished that in this farm bill.
I have given up on working with this administration on animal ID. They have wasted too much money and have never demonstrated real commitment to implementing a system that will work. I hope that we can work with the new administration next year to establish a functioning animal identification system. We cannot wait for a real animal disease emergency to force us to move forward with animal ID, and our trading partners are going to insist upon it at some point.
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Photos
Collin Peterson