DTN/The Progressive Farmer: Agriculture Markets, News and Weather

Ag Policy Blog

Chris Clayton DTN Ag Policy Editor

Bio | Email

Tuesday 12/01/09

Environmental Guys Pick Oil Over Ethanol

USDA is expected to provide more analysis for the impact climate legislation would have on agriculture as USDA officials testify before The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research. USDA chief economist Joe Glauber will testify first on Wednesday. Before that, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will hold a press briefing going over Glauber's analysis.

Afterward, several other economists also will testify.

SURE Rule is Coming

I was told by a USDA spokesman on Tuesday that Agriculture officials expect the rule for the permanent disaster program to be returned from the White House Office of Management and Budget any day. Within a week after, the rule will hit the Federal Register.

E-15 Delay Means I Can Buy More Gasoline

Yippee!!! I can't tell you how excited I am that the EPA delayed a decision on E-15.

We get to keep using more fossil fuels for our energy needs. And I'm not alone. Environmental groups on Tuesday declared their joy too. Burning more fossil fuels is good for the environment. Otherwise, why in the world would the Environmental Working Group and Natural Resources Defense Council stand with the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association.

Well, EWG's Iowa hit man declared there are all of the subsidies spent on ethanol and still the fuel can't stand on its own. And we don't need to subsidize oil because we just keep writing a $400 billion check overseas every year. Neither here nor there, right?

Oh and let's toss in the Grocery Manufacturers Association, so credible in the arguments against ethanol after hiring a public relations firm in 2008 specifically to drum up arguments against the renewable fuel. GMA figured out you don't need public relations firms when you have environmental groups willing to burn fossil fuels and back cheap commodities for the food companies.

Cool. Now I just need to look up the address of that Hummer dealer.

And I don't want to hear some environmental groups try to preach about carbon emissions.

Just hang with the Big Oil guys, boys.

I can be found on Twitter at chrisclaytonDTN.

Posted at 7:49PM CST 12/01/09 by Chris Clayton

Comments (3)

You make a compelling case, Chris. It does appear indeed that Big Green is in bed with Big Oil. Hollywood couldn't come up with something that bizarre. If it walks like a duck.

Posted by Glen Stewart at 9:27PM CST 12/02/09

Buy two hummers Chris. Its just a matter of time before big oil is going to own a lot of these ethanol plants anyway. Givem hell. Can you say that on dtn?

Posted by ROGER JENSON at 6:47AM CST 12/03/09

I think you all are being a little simplistic. Ethanol has very little energy gain but that might improve with research. While I believe we need to produce ethanol and biodiesel, biofuels will never take the place of 84 million barrels of oil per day. Actually from reading most farmers opinions here its the farmers who like big oil and as always are their own worse enemies! And when did Hollywood represent "green"??? Talk about bizarre thinking!!! Change is coming fast as "peak oil" is not a conservative or liberal ideology, it is a fact we all have to deal with, wake up dudes!

Posted by Jay Mcginnis at 8:31AM CST 12/03/09

Post a Blog Comment:

Your Comment:

You must be logged in to post a comment. If you are not already registered, click on the Register link at the top of this page.

Post Comment

DTN reserves the right to delete comments posted to any of our blogs and forums, for reasons including profanity, libel, irrelevant personal attacks and advertisements.

Blog Home Pages

	July2010
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2 Bingaman Becomes Pivotal in Climate Talks	3
4	5 Soil Scientist: Ag Carbon is Undervalued	6	7 NPPC Needs More Time on Competition Rule	8	9 FAPRI Chews on Climate Bill Numbers Infrastructure Lacking Attention in Congress	10
11 Harkin Asks About Legality of Agent Payment Caps	12	13 Climate Still Tough For Energy Bill, Even With Biofuels CropLife Hosts Farm Bill Forum Webcast	14 USDA Hosting Climate Adaptation Conference	15	16 Yankee Boss Highlights Estate Tax Folly	17
18	19	20 GIPSA Rule Draws Bi-Partisan Fire R-CALF Busy Defending Proposed Livestock Rule	21 Vilsack Apologizes to Fired USDA Worker USDA at Heart of Viral Media Story	22 Climate Debate: At The Table or On The Menu	23 EPA in Another Dust Up	24
25	26 USDA to Announce CRP Signup	27 Putting a Lid on Cap and Trade	28 Senator Questions Cost-Benefit of GIPSA Rule Nebraska Farmers Union Case for Cap and Trade	29 Ag Groups Can't Back NCBA Restructuring Plans	30	31

RSS

Recent Blog Posts

Ag Groups Can't Back NCBA Restructuring Plans

Wed Jul 28, 2010 09:10 PM CDT
Leading into the National Cattlemen's Beef Association summer meeting, five major agricultural and livestock groups sent a letter Wednesday indicating they still have concerns "regarding the financial, operational, and governance firewalls" at NCBA that prevent the groups from supporting NCBA's effort to restructure its governance.

Senator Questions Cost-Benefit of GIPSA Rule

Wed Jul 28, 2010 09:07 AM CDT
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, has written a letter to the Obama administration's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs questioning the cost-benefit analysis of the proposed USDA livestock competition rule.

Nebraska Farmers Union Case for Cap and Trade

Tue Jul 27, 2010 09:41 PM CDT
Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen questions why Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., are so willing to go to the mattresses to kill cap-and-trade.

Putting a Lid on Cap and Trade

Tue Jul 27, 2010 09:04 AM CDT
A senator from Nebraska wants to ensure that Democrats could not insert a cap-and-trade plan into any conference report that could come from an energy bill.

USDA to Announce CRP Signup

Mon Jul 26, 2010 10:31 AM CDT
USDA will announce a general signup for the Conservation Reserve Program on Monday.

EPA in Another Dust Up

Fri Jul 23, 2010 04:12 PM CDT
I got two press releases Friday afternoon from Republican senators calling on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to abandon new dust regulation recommendations.

Climate Debate: At The Table or On The Menu

Thu Jul 22, 2010 02:24 PM CDT
The Pew Center on Global Climate Change released a new report on reasons why farmers should be engaged in the debate over climate and energy.

Vilsack Apologizes to Fired USDA Worker

Wed Jul 21, 2010 04:48 PM CDT
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack opened a press conference Wednesday afternoon --- broadcast live on the cable networks --- saying he had spoken with dismissed Georgia rural development director Shirley Sherrod and Vilsack had apologized for the incident.

USDA at Heart of Viral Media Story

Wed Jul 21, 2010 03:22 PM CDT
Everything in and out of USDA basically stopped on Wednesday because of the saga with Shirley Sherrod, the Georgia USDA rural development director forced to resign earlier in the week. Meanwhile, the story became the most dominating topic of the day.

GIPSA Rule Draws Bi-Partisan Fire

Tue Jul 20, 2010 03:47 PM CDT
Eviscerated isn't a term I get to use much, but words such as "eviscerated," "seared" and my favorite, "smackdown," all came to mind watching House Agriculture Committee discuss the proposed livestock competition rules with USDA officials in a hearing Tuesday.

R-CALF Busy Defending Proposed Livestock Rule

Mon Jul 19, 2010 08:26 PM CDT
R-CALF is coming out aggressively defending the new proposed livestock rule from GIPSA and arguing some other groups don't need a long-term extension of the public comment period.

Yankee Boss Highlights Estate Tax Folly

Fri Jul 16, 2010 08:44 AM CDT
Yankee Owner George Steinbrenner's death has drawn a lot more attention to the lack of work in Congress on resolving the estate tax.

USDA Hosting Climate Adaptation Conference

Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:15 PM CDT
USDA is hosting an all-day meeting on climate-change adaptation Monday in Denver along with the American Farmland Trust and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Climate Still Tough For Energy Bill, Even With Biofuels

Tue Jul 13, 2010 03:42 PM CDT
In his weekly conference call, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said he backs an energy bill, and would like to see the $1-a-gallon biodiesel tax credit extension finally completed, as well as an extension of the 45-cent-a-gallon ethanol blenders credit. However, Grassley said he would not support a "climate" bill even if the biodiesel and ethanol tax credits were added to the bill.

CropLife Hosts Farm Bill Forum Webcast

Tue Jul 13, 2010 06:55 AM CDT
CropLife America is hosting an all-day inaugural national policy conference today, "Modern Agriculture: Exploring its Relationship with Technology, Science & Society," starting at 8 a.m. CDT the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The conference will focus on issues facing modern agriculture and how those will impact the 2012 farm bill.

Harkin Asks About Legality of Agent Payment Caps

Sun Jul 11, 2010 02:00 PM CDT
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, became the latest senator to lend his voice to the concerns of crop-insurance agents facing pay caps because of the Standard Reinsurance Agreement between USDA and insurance companies. Sixteen other senators sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last week urging further changes in the final draft of the SRA.

FAPRI Chews on Climate Bill Numbers

Fri Jul 9, 2010 02:16 PM CDT
The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri released a report Friday looking at impacts of climate change legislation on agriculture.

Infrastructure Lacking Attention in Congress

Fri Jul 9, 2010 09:24 AM CDT
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is trying to draw some attention to the infrastructure needs in America, and calling on Congress to pass a $375 billion highway bill.

NPPC Needs More Time on Competition Rule

Wed Jul 7, 2010 10:19 AM CDT
The National Pork Producers Council has sent a letter to Dudley Butler, administrator for USDA's Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration asking for a 120-day extension to the comment period for new proposed federal competition rules.

Soil Scientist: Ag Carbon is Undervalued

Mon Jul 5, 2010 02:34 PM CDT
One interesting perspective about carbon markets came from a soil scientist saying utility companies are paying up to $150 a ton for carbon sequestration while right now farmers don't have a working market.