The Environmental Protection Agency is expected today to release new tailpipe emission standards that the ethanol industry and corn growers have been trying to derail. EPA estimated the proposed standards would require two-thirds of new light-duty vehicles to be electric by the 2032 model-year.
Toyota, which has been less focused on EVs than some other car makers, organized corn growers and its dealerships to urge President Biden to pull back on the standards. “This is not a war on carbon, this is a war on the gas tank,” Mark Johnson, vice president of government affairs at Toyota Motor North America, told farmers at Commodity Classic in Houston recently.
In a statement, the Environmental Defense Fund is defending EPA’s plan: “EPA’s clean car standards will secure vital benefits, including substantial reductions in climate and health harming pollution and significant consumer savings.”
Report sees flat growth in SAF, increasing RD production
A new forecast for the farm economy sees renewable diesel demand as a continued bright spot in the farm economy, even as production of sustainable aviation fuel struggles to take off.
The report led by the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri projects renewable diesel production will increase from 2.4 billion gallons last year to nearly 3 billion gallons in 2025 and up to 3.9 billion gallons by 2030. That’s steady growth but a slower pace than we’ve seen in recent years. Production capacity didn’t exceed a billion gallons until 2021.
Take note: FAPRI sees production of sustainable aviation fuel ramping up over the next couple of years but never reaching a billion gallons a year in the coming decade. That’s because the tax credits created for SAF by the Inflation Reduction Act are set to expire in 2027. The airline industry has pledged to use 3 billion gallons of SAF a year by 2030.
By the way: Even with increased biofuel demand, market net returns for soybeans are expected to drop from $374.74 per acre on the 2023 crop to $306.81 for this year’s harvest, according to FAPRI. Growers are expected to cut back on corn plantings this year, and FAPRI is forecasting that returns on corn will be about the same as last year, at about $340 an acre.
One bright spot: Cost decreases for fertilizer and fuel should more than offset an increase in other input costs this year, “resulting in an 11% decrease in variable expenses,” FAPRI says. Even so, lower crop prices mean that net farm income will be the lowest it has been since 2020, FAPRI says.
Conservative group sees private property concerns in targeting China
The House Ag Committee is putting a focus today on China and the threat that critics say it poses to U.S. agriculture. The witnesses will include South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem; leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party; Josh Gackle, president of the American Soybean Association; and Kip Tom, former ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
The conservative National Taxpayers Union is using the hearing to warn against further efforts to restrict sales of land to foreign buyers. “The greatest danger China poses to American agriculture is that the country will stop buying U.S. farm exports,” NTU says in a submission to the committee. NTU notes China is the No. 1 market for U.S. farmers.
“Private property rights are the backbone of the U.S. economy,” NTU goes on. “As opposed to countries like communist China, if you own a farm in Montana, that is your farm – not “our” farm. If you own a feedlot in Nebraska, that is your feedlot – not ‘our’ feedlot. Subject to legitimate, clearly specified exceptions, what you do on your private property – including if you decide to sell it, and who you want to sell it to – should be up to you.”
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Check out this week’s Agri-Pulse newsletter for a look at what’s behind the growing U.S. ag trade deficit, and why it could be difficult to close. We also report on the buzz in the cattle industry about the possibility of modifying beef quality grades.
EPA union seeks to complete contract negotiations
EPA union members want agency management to finish negotiating a new contract.
One critical issue remains, according to AFGE Council 238, which with 9,500 employees is the largest union at EPA. That issue is whether the collective bargaining agreement will automatically expire when its term ends.
“In virtually all federal contracts including the contracts the agency has with its other unions,” the CBA remains in effect while new negotiations take place, the council said in a letter to EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe.
“Over two years, the two parties have successfully navigated through many difficult roadblocks, and our efforts have resulted in agreement on 39 Articles,” the union said. However, “The agency is insisting that the AFGE agree to a contract that can simply be ended by one party, a stance that is reminiscent of the previous administration,” the union wrote tom McCabe.
EPA didn’t respond to a request for comment.
He said it. “Over the last few decades, the failed trickle-down economic policies of the past have hit rural America especially hard. They have hollowed out communities, essentially telling farmers that the only path forward is to ‘get big’ or ‘get out.’” – President Joe Biden in his National Ag Day proclamation on Tuesday.
