Mary Dye Speaks about House Bill 1780
Future plans are in store for Rep. Dye and Rep. Schmick
April 27, 2023
POMEROY – Despite the loss at the house regarding House Bill (HB) 1780, local farmer Mary Dye of Pomeroy is making plans with Joe Schmick to combat the changes that will affect Eastern Washington.
“I think that the growers in our region are really experiencing the pain from the auction,” said Dye. “Here we are, and we are faced with an increased price and cost dilemma.”
The following auction is scheduled for the end of June, and the results will be announced in early July.
“There is so much risk and potential for catastrophic cost for producers.”
Dye reports that the decline in the white wheat market is due to many reasons, one of which is raised interest.
“It’s made money tight. It’s also made our crop less competitive,” she said. “There have been some openings in the Black Sea, and it’s priced significantly less. The Australian crop was poor quality, and now they are putting their crop on the market, leaving ours full.”
She believes farmers will experience a challenging year if they continue to experience regression, lackluster market opportunities, and receive fewer fertilizers.
“The stress is significant. There is just so much uncertainty. I think people are just trying to keep their concerns close. People are looking for the best opportunity in the circumstances we have. It’s very disheartening to the ag community. Both at the federal and state levels, the restrictions will have extraordinarily devastating effects on the industry.”
Dye and Schmick are laying out a new plan, as Dye reports that the proposed bills could have been a better fix.
“It wasn’t a policy in its first draft that the industry could rally around,” she said. “Our bill was dropped before the cut-off and didn’t get a hearing. Because of industry concerns and the timeframe, it couldn’t get a hearing again.”
The two have signed on to work on HB 1780, which addresses the unintended consequences of the climate commitment act.
The climate commitment act created a market for allowances for fossil fuel industries. The industry and refineries have to buy allowances to continue to refine fuels. This is based on a formula on metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in their emissions.
Anyone that produces more than 25,000 tons must buy allowances.
“They limited the allowance. Because of the limit and their aggressive goal to reduce emissions by half, the industry must replace their fossil fuel reduction operations with non-fuel emitting operations,” Dye added.
Aviation is one of the largest emitters of Co2.
“They are trying to buy off other industries to compensate, and by 2035, they must purchase their allowances. Obviously, this policy is extraordinarily difficult and expensive. This is a total truncation of the energy supply before we have an alternative. It requires a lot of investment upfront. From an economic standpoint, this isn’t the true way. It is an energy burden at the gas pump for those who produce the food, the electricity this year.”
Dye claims this discourages people who want to come to Washington and build jobs here. They are going to be looking elsewhere.
“The other concern is how many global equity firms are coming here. They are taking advantage of that. There is prime farmland and habitat devoured by wind and solar. They don’t pencil out aside from the fact that they can buy, invest, and sell to energy companies desperate for offset. It’s unreliable, and we are being forced into that,” she said.
Dye reports that close to 700,000 acres of farmland are available in Eastern Washington, and the energy companies are coming for the land.
“Who is going to be the nation’s fruit and vegetable basket? Well, the land here is the only place available for that. To have these policies and see the government tell us to serve these companies is maddening. The money is real. I do not fault anyone who has land and has struggled. But on the other hand, is it prudent to allow this?”
Dye and Schmick are currently studying and planning to work with the industry to build a unified answer.
“Come next winter we will have the answers to remedy the concerns. These are agricultural threats, and it’s not about this year’s crop; it’s about this year’s farmer who has a lot on his plate and lawmakers making his life more expensive.”
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