News Update
July 17, 2014
USDA Announces Funding to
Improve Electric Systems in Rural Areas
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced July 16 that USDA is investing $263.3 million to help modernize and improve the reliability of rural electric systems in eight states.
“America’s infrastructure must be modernized if we are to continue to create jobs, expand opportunity and be competitive in the global economy,” Vilsack said. “Modernizing our nation’s rural electric infrastructure will help better support economic development in rural areas while helping to ensure reliable and affordable electric service for people who live and work in small communities across the country.”
The announcement includes nearly $20 million for smart-grid improvements. Smart grid refers to the application of technologies designed to modernize our nation’s electric system. These technologies increase the reliability of electric power by helping utilities better manage the electric grid, such as during peak demand, to improve operational efficiencies.
The loans announced will build or improve more than 3,700 miles of line in rural areas. For example, the Southside Electric Cooperative in Crewe, Va., will receive a $40 million loan guarantee to build and improve more than 1,300 miles of line and make other system improvements. Sumter Electric Cooperative in Sumterville, Fla., will build or improve 1,447 miles of line.
USDA Awards Funds to Promote Development
of Rural Wood to Energy Projects
Vilsack announced the award of more than $2.5 million in grants to develop wood energy teams in 11 states and an additional $1.25 million for nine wood energy projects.
“Renewable wood energy is part of the Obama Administration’s ‘all of the above’ energy strategy,” Vilsack said. “Working with our partners, the Forest Service is supporting development of wood energy projects that promote sound forest management, expand regional economies and create new rural jobs.”
The federal funds will leverage more than $4.5 million in investments from USDA partners. Under the terms of the agreements announced July 15, private, state and federal organizations will work together to stimulate the development of additional wood energy projects in their states. Activities may include workshops that provide technical, financial and environmental information; preliminary engineering assessments; and community outreach needed to support development of wood energy projects.
Grant recipients are from Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Vilsack also announced projects to be funded through the Wood-to-Energy grant program, which will use woody material from National Forest System lands, such as beetle-killed trees, to improve forest health and aid in wildfire prevention. The grant program helps applicants complete the necessary design work needed to secure public or private investment for construction.
For more information on the cooperative agreement program, visit http://na.fs.fed.us/werc/wood-energy/. For more information on USDA’s renewable energy programs, please visit the USDA Energy website.
For more information, please view the full release here.
UK to Host Another Eastern Kentucky Grazing Day
Due to the overwhelming success of a spring grazing program, the University of Kentucky (UK) Master Grazer Program is hosting a one-day grazing school in Morgan County.
The event will be from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, at the Morgan County extension research farm in West Liberty. Specialists with the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment will cover topics related to fall pasture management.
“The participants will learn about issues producers face during the fall,” said Cody Smith, coordinator for the UK Master Grazer Program. “This includes topics like stockpiling fescue, selecting winter annuals for grazing, summer annuals’ performance and calibrating a no-till drill and an herbicide sprayer.”
Anyone is welcome to attend, regardless of whether they participated in the spring grazing school. Refreshments will be provided. Contact Smith at 859-257-7512, Sarah Fannin at 606-743-3292 or Daniel Wilson at 606-668-3712 for more information or to register. Fannin and Wilson are agriculture and natural resources agents with the UK Cooperative Extension Service in Morgan and Wolfe counties, respectively.
The research farm is located on state Route 172, just past the intersection of U.S. Route 460 in West Liberty.
Equal Access to Broadcast Television Key
to Rural America Says NFU
Doug Sombke, president of South Dakota Farmers Union, visited Capitol Hill last week to urge lawmakers to act on pending legislation that will ensure rural Americans maintain access to their local broadcast television stations.
“Broadcast television is a key tool for rural Americans to obtain local news, weather and market data and emergency broadcast alerts,” said Sombke, who also chairs the National Farmers Union (NFU) Legislative Committee. “Discriminating against some customers just because they live in smaller markets is wrong.”
Specifically, Sombke met with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and asked him to support the Senate Judiciary Committee version of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA), which was recently introduced by Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
That bill, he said, was a “clean reauthorization without the special-interest add-ons that some cable and satellite companies are seeking.”
The STELA law, which allows satellite providers to provide broadcast stations from outside the local market in limited circumstances, should be reauthorized before expiring at the end of the year. But some pay-TV providers are lobbying to add language that would make it easier to raise consumer prices and make local broadcast channels more difficult to access.
If these changes were to become law, Sombke said many rural television markets would suffer from reduced revenue, ultimately leaving fewer options for rural customers.
For example, if a rural area broadcaster couldn’t afford to stay in business, its local viewers might only have access to large broadcasters that operate in far-away states or big cities, which would not provide the local news, weather and emergency alerts important to local communities.
“Senator Thune and many rural lawmakers are very aware of the situation and are sympathetic to the difficult position a STELA with stripped-down consumer protections could cause their constituents in rural America,” Sombke added. “We thank them for their support.”
Farm Bureau Decodes Water Rule Proposal,
Asks EPA to Rescind
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) released July 16 to Congress a comprehensive document that responds, point by point, to numerous inaccurate and misleading comments made about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) latest clean water rule. Nancy Stoner, EPA acting assistant administrator for water, made the statements in a recent agency blog post.
AFBF’s document explains — with specific citations to the proposed rule and other authorities — how the rule would give EPA broad Clean Water Act jurisdiction over dry land features and farming practices long declared off-limits by Congress and the nation’s highest court.
“AFBF and several state Farm Bureaus have met with the EPA repeatedly, and each time agency officials have declined to grapple with the serious, real-world implications of the rule,” AFBF President Bob Stallman said. “EPA is now engaged in an intensive public relations campaign, and we believe its statements are directly contrary to the reality of the proposed rule.
“We have therefore decided to take our arguments to a wider audience, as well. Farm Bureau is dedicated to communicating to farmers, their elected representatives and the public how the proposed rule will impose costly and time-intensive federal permitting regimes on commonplace and essential practices that our nation’s farmers and ranchers depend on. Agency inspectors and courts will apply the rule, not EPA’s talking points. It’s time for the agency to ditch this rule and start over.”
AFBF hopes this document will contribute to the ongoing discussion in Congress regarding the rule and its implications not only for farming, but for the U.S. economy more broadly.
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