Concerned about the impact that the cap-and-trade national energy tax will have on Missouri farm families, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) today requested that the House Agriculture Committee conduct a thorough review of the legislation to learn more about its true impact before voting on it.

 

Luetkemeyer, a member of the Agriculture Committee, called for further study of the bill after the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on it without considering holding a markup of the legislation.

While those in rural America understand that farming is a high-cost and low-profit-margin business, Luetkemeyer noted that farmers are also price takers, so even a small increase in operating costs can be devastating to a producer’s bottom line. Under the cap-and-trade bill, those input costs are expected, as the president has said, to “skyrocket.” 

“This dangerous legislation will cripple the marketplace for agriculture products and put our agricultural industry at a severe disadvantage, and I have asked my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to demand a mark-up of this complex legislation so that we can truly gauge the impact it will have on our farm families,” said committee member Luetkemeyer. “The majority forced through the so-called stimulus bill without giving folks a chance to read it, and earmarks are quietly added to spending bills. I object to having that secretive approach continue when it comes to the livelihood of our farm families.”

 

The following is Luetkemeyer’s opening statement from today’s House Agriculture Committee hearing on cap-and-trade: 

 

Thank you, Chairman Peterson and Ranking Member Lucas, for holding this hearing and giving me the opportunity to voice the concerns of my constituents about the grave consequences of this national energy tax proposal.

I have traveled Missouri’s 9^th Congressional District extensively, and this cap-and-tax plan is a top concern of my constituents’, particularly among the more than 34,000 farm operators in my district and the 650,000 rural electric cooperative members in Missouri.  Agriculture is the backbone of the economy in my state, and this proposal will have disastrous consequences for Missouri.

This bill will increase taxes, eliminate jobs or drive them offshore, and raise the energy costs of those hard-working farm families trying to make ends meet.

American agriculture prides itself on the safe, affordable and abundant supply of food, fiber and increasingly fuel that it produces for American consumers. This legislation will undermine that system. By unilaterally imposing new taxes and regulatory burdens on American farmers and ranchers, we are ensuring that our products will not be able to compete in the global market. We will become dependent on foreign countries for our food, just as we are dependent upon them for our oil today.

This national energy tax discriminates against rural communities. I come from Saint Elizabeth, Missouri, a town of about 300 people in central Missouri. Rural residents must travel 25 percent further for routine errands than urban households.  Rural households also spend 58 percent more on fuel than urban residents as a percentage of income.

In addition, the industries that will be most negatively impacted by higher energy costs, such as agriculture, manufacturing, construction, transportation, mining and utilities, comprise 31 percent of all rural employment -- compared to only 19 percent of urban employment.

As a farmer, I know first-hand that agriculture is not only an extremely energy intensive industry, but it is also often a high-volume, low-profit- margin industry. Sixty-five percent of farmers’ variable input costs are fuel, electricity, fertilizer and chemicals. All of these inputs will go up, and that doesn’t even take into effect the increased costs that farmers will have to pay for seed, equipment, machinery and other farming supplies. As a result, this will devastate the farm economy and put significant hardships on the rural communities that depend on it.

If this disastrous bill passes, the production costs for American farmers will skyrocket and their foreign competitors will not.

It will put American agriculture at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy and strip away the livelihood of many of my constituents, all for an idea that does not have the support of sound science on its side.

And with our current economic difficulties, we should not be adding yet another burden to our family farmers and rural communities.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this dangerous national energy tax scheme that, if passed, threatens the very livelihood of America’s farm families and rural communities.

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