National Grange Legislative Director Leroy Watson recently spoke out against rising energy prices and highlighted the need for bi-partisan commitment by our nation’s leaders to further develop domestic sources of energy on behalf of family farmers and rural Americans during a press conference held at the National Press Club. In his remarks, Watson explained how rising energy prices are affecting family farmers, ranchers, and other rural Americans, as well as to how the lack of domestic energy security in the U.S. contributes to global food price inflation.

For Americans living and working in rural communities, the costs of energy dependence and insecurity are devastating. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, more than 43% of all workers who live in the most remote, rural counties in the country commute outside their county to their job. The average drive for these long distance rural job commuters is 54 miles a day. Assuming a single commuter in a vehicle that meets current CAFE automobile standards, that works out to more than $7.5 million per day in long distance commuting costs and about $4 million per day that is leaving hard pressed rural communities to go to foreign oil producing nations. Additional energy related transportation costs for basic services in rural communities, such as health care, public education, and public safety in rural communities, are further straining public and private budgets alike to the breaking point. 

“Grange members strongly believe that rampant energy price inflation is closely tied to our nation’s dependency on foreign supplies of petroleum…Increased national energy security through a commitment to greater utilization of all existing domestic energy resources, both traditional and alternative, is critical to breaking the energy driven, inflationary spiral into which our nation now finds itself headed.”

Grange policy also advocates for increasing domestic energy projection through a variety of means. According to long term projections put out by the Energy Information Administration, by 2030, our domestic need for energy will rise by about 40%. The National Grange continues to urge the repeal of laws and regulations that have blocked or discouraged United States’ energy production. We support a national energy policy that will encourage the development of all forms of domestic energy, traditional and alternative, in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We favor the complete assessment and eventual utilization of all petro­leum, natural gas, and coal resources found on federal lands, including the exploration and production of oil and natural gas reserves on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as from outer continental shelf lease sales in accordance with the terms of environmentally sound development plans. Finally, we support a national goal of deriving at least 25% of our nation’s energy resources from domestic sources of renewable energy.

Grange members reject the notion that energy development and environmental stewardship are not compatible. From the late 19 th through the 20 th Century, most oil and gas exploration and production in the United States occurred on private lands throughout rural America. Family farmers and ranchers worked with oil and gas companies to extract the energy resources found beneath their land in an environmentally sound manner. Their individual parcels of working farm or ranch land were every bit as dear to them as any comparable parcel of public land or coastal area is today. Overwhelmingly, the environmental and economic record of the oil and gas industry in producing on private land was favorable, and that was before most of the modern exploration and production advancements to mitigate environmental risks that had been adopted by today’s petroleum industry. Therefore, our experiences as rural Americans tell us that energy development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive goals.

The direct and indirect impacts of spiraling energy costs are key factors in food price inflation. For U.S. family farmers, high fuel costs have caused the abandonment of crops in their fields and the discontinued raising of livestock. Prices of anhydrous ammonia, a major source of fertilizer derived from natural gas, have doubled in less than 12 months. Without an energy policy that is balanced and shifts our dependence on foreign oil to domestic supplies, we are at the mercy of the volatile world market. U.S. farmers cannot conserve their way to both lower costs and higher production in order to meet the current demand for more food. They must have access to reliable, affordable, and diverse sources of energy, whether that energy is conventional or renewable.

The press conference was sponsored by the American Highway Users Alliance. The American Trucking Association, National Defense Council Foundation, and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council also made statements calling on Congress and the President to adopt policies to increase production of domestic energy resources and urged voters in farming and rural communities all across the country to engage in dialogue with political candidates of both parties at the federal, state, and local levels to obtain their pledges to work together on a non-partisan basis to increase all sources of domestically produced energy.

Nancy Pelosi

National Grange urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to oppose circumvention of the normal legislative process including subcommittee and full committee debate on either HR 2421 and S 1879 the Clean Water Restoration Act, allowing discussion on amendments to keep the current definition of navigable waters in the existing statute. These pieces of legislation unsuccessfully seek to restore protections under the Clean Water Act lost due to Supreme Court decisions in 2001 and 2006 and to clarify which waters would be subject to regulation under the act.

The bills’ shortcomings, including removing the words “navigable waters,” have significant implications for retirees, families, farmers, ranchers and owners of small businesses – many of whom have a significant portion of their net worth tied up in homes, lots or other real estate. In the 30+ years that the Clean Water Act has been on the books, there has been considerable uncertainty over what is subject to federal regulation. The absence of clear and consistent standards under the Act has led to abuse.

Two U.S. Supreme Court cases, one in 2001 (Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) and another in 2006 (Rapanos v. U.S.), have significantly reduced the potential for abuse under the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act was intended to prevent pollution of “navigable waters” of the U.S. The

Court’s decisions limit the federal government’s previously wide latitude to define “navigable” and exert federal authority. Isolated, non-navigable waters, for example, are no longer subject to regulation. Isolated drainage ditches with insignificant, intermittent flows also are no longer subject to federal authority under the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Restoration Act would restore the virtually limitless regulatory power federal agencies had assumed in contravention of congressional intent.

“H.R. 2421 and S. 1879 would give federal agencies authority over all interstate and intrastate waters including non-navigable waters,” stated Leroy Watson, National Grange Legislative Director. “As such, they not only seek authority far beyond the original scope of the Clean Water Act, but beyond Congress’s constitutional powers.”

According to Watson, the bills would also permit Congress to abdicate its legislative responsibilities. “The bills define waters of the United States, in part, as all waters… to the fullest extent that these waters, or activities affecting these waters, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution, effectively deferring to courts to determine what waters are subject to regulation,” Watson concluded. “ Further, the bill’s reference to “activities affecting these waters” could give federal agencies the ability to assume expansive authority over not only water, but land and the air, too.”

Grange Day at the State House -- The second annual New Hampshire Grange Legislative Day was held in the State House on Friday, June 13, 2008. Grange members met to tour the Capitol Building. Following the tour, the group met in a Legislative Office Building across the street from the State House to discuss the process of turning Grange policy into a law.

Burning Bush – the Cash Crop As recently reported in the PA Grange Advocate, opportunities to cash in on the alternative energy mandate continue to crop up for Pennsylvania’s farmers. Legislation to encourage the planting and harvesting of bioenergy crops, perennial trees or plants that can be grown to produce raw renewable biomass energy was introduced recently as the Pennsylvania Farms to Fuels Initiatives Act with a proposed $10 million price tag for administering the program. Farmers interested in growing these crops would be eligible for “transition incentive payments” over a three-year period to offset the potential loss in profitability for switching from established crops to growing these bioenergy crops at $150/acre for the first year’s harvest, $100/acre for the second year’s harvest and $50/acre for the third year’s harvest. Total reimbursement over the three-year period would be capped at $100,000. This program would be administered by the Ag Department, and the Secretary of Agriculture would determine which crops meet the definition of bioenergy crops.