Environment

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House Democrats are forging ahead with writing a massive new tax and spending package with major implications for the next farm bill as well as producers’ finances.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board, which has been dormant so far during the Biden administration, is likely to tackle climate change and environmental justice issues when it starts meeting again later this year, EPA and new members say.

Key USDA watershed programs that fund agricultural waste management, water quality, and flood prevention projects would get $918 million through the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package awaiting a final House vote.

Fallen structures, electrical wires and damaged barges are still clogging the lower Mississippi River, but Louisiana Ag Commissioner Mike Strain says he expects the main artery for U.S. ag exports to be at least partially open for traffic in five days or less.

The Department of Agriculture is in touch with Capitol Hill as Democratic leaders work to craft legislation that has the potential to funnel more money into the farm bill and expand the number of producers who could receive funding and assistance for government conservation programs.

When it comes to producing soyoil for the rapidly emerging renewable diesel market, the industry is adamant that it can expand without the kind of food-versus-fuel criticism from the general public that has plagued biofuels in the past.

The Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule has been vacated by a federal judge in Arizona who said allowing it to remain in place risks “serious environmental harm,” particularly in the arid Southwest.

Dry weather and above normal temperatures are expected across the upper Midwest from September to November, according to the National Weather Service.