B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
BUSINESS & AG LIFE
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2022
What new tax, health
care and climate
bill means for the
agriculture industry
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
WASHINGTON — The
U.S. House on Friday, Aug.
12, passed a sweeping bill
that will raise corporate
taxes and spend hundreds of
billions of dollars on climate
and health care programs.
The package includes
major provisions involving
water and agriculture.
The House voted 220-
207 along party lines. The
measure had passed the
Senate in similar fashion:
51-50 with Democrats
in support, Republicans
opposed and a tiebreaking
vote cast by Vice President
Kamala Harris.
President Joe Biden plans
to sign the bill into law this
week.
Democrats passed the
bill using a process called
reconciliation, which allows
bills to advance with a
simple majority rather
than the 60 votes typi-
cally needed. Bills passed
via reconciliation must be
budget-related.
House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif., called the
legislation “historic” and
“transformative.”
The bill’s main compo-
nent is $369 billion to be
spent over 10 years on cli-
mate and energy programs.
The legislation also gives
Medicare administrators
the power to negotiate drug
rates and extends expanded
Aff ordable Care Act subsi-
dies through 2025.
To fund the measures,
the bill would set a 15%
minimum tax on large cor-
porations, create a 1% excise
tax on companies’ stock
buybacks and fund the
Internal Revenue Service to
audit more taxpayers.
According to numbers
released by Senate Dem-
ocrats, the measure would
raise $739 billion in revenue.
Supporters have dubbed
the bill the Infl ation Reduc-
tion Act, saying it will tackle
infl ation by lowering the
defi cit and costs for Amer-
ican families. The nonpar-
tisan Congressional Budget
Offi ce, however, said the
bill’s eff ect on infl ation will
be “negligible.”
Republican lawmakers
are concerned about the
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
The sun rises Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, as fi refi ghters battle the fl ames on the west side of the Grain Craft fl our mill in Pendleton.
Farmers, customers scramble to
make new plans after fl our mill fi re
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
PENDLETON — Pacifi c
Northwest wheat farmers
are beginning to cope with
the fallout from a massive
fi re Aug. 10 that left the
Grain Craft fl our mill in
Pendleton a “total loss.”
The company is working
with farmers to handle the
excess supply, said Natalie
Faulkner, director of com-
munications for Grain
Craft, based in Chatta-
nooga, Tenn.
The building was
more than 100 years old,
Faukner said. Twenty-two
employees worked in the
mill. There were no injuries
in the fi re. Pendleton Police
Chief Chuck Byram said
the mill was a “total loss.”
The company does not
disclose the production
capacity of the building,
Faulkner said. The extent
of the damage and possi-
bility of rebuilding are not
yet known, she added.
“It’s still an active situa-
tion, we are still evaluating
everything, just trying to
understand the cause and
circumstances,” Faulkner
told the Capital Press.
Ben Maney, president
of Oregon Wheat Growers
League, farms north of
Pendleton.
He doesn’t take his grain
to the facility, but “a sub-
stantial amount of farmers”
in the area do, he told the
Capital Press.
“It’s been a staple for the
Pendleton community for
an awfully long time, gen-
erations, and it’s always
been a central location (in)
town,” he said.
The fi re is the latest hit
for growers, after experi-
encing severe drought last
year, Maney said. Many
crops had rebounded this
year with spring rains.
“A lot of farmers don’t
have home storage, and
they can’t store that grain
on their farm,” he said.
“For this heartbreaking
event to happen today, it
puts the community and a
lot of the farmers in a tough
situation. It hits the com-
munity hard.”
Jeremy Bunch, CEO of
Shepherd’s Grain, a farm-
er-owned fl our company,
sent an email to customers
about the fi re.
“We are working on a
contingency plan now and
getting wheat staged for
movement to another Grain
Craft mill,” Bunch said.
“Unfortunately, there will
be an interruption in fl our
supply as we work through
these details. We apologize
for the inconvenience this
causes. We are working
hard to minimize this fl our
supply interruption and will
provide a timeline update
very soon.”
The cause of the fi re
was “mechanical failure,”
Byram, the police chief,
told the Capital Press.
On Aug. 9, dispatchers
received a report of black
smoke coming from the
mills, “with no visible
fl ames,” according to a
police department press
release. The fi re depart-
ment responded, extin-
guished the small fi re and
remained on fi re watch.
The fi re subsequently
reignited at about 4 a.m.
Aug. 10 and became fully
engulfed due to the dry
grain and the wooden
structure, Byram said.
Employees identifi ed the
source of the fi re, Byram
said.
“It happened in the mill
itself, with one of the pieces
of equipment, with a rubber
bushing or housing that
obviously got too hot and
started the fi re,” he said.
There were no injuries,
he said.
It’s the middle of har-
vest, Byram said, so the
mill was processing a lot
of fl our. He didn’t have an
exact fi gure, but said Grain
Craft employees estimated
there were “hundreds of
thousands of pounds of pro-
cessed fl our in the bins.”
There is no estimated
cost of damage yet, he said.
“We can’t even get into
the building, we can’t do
anything right now, this is
strictly defensive ... right
now. They’re just trying to
keep (the fi re) away from
other structures,” he said
the afternoon of Aug. 10.
Some surrounding
buildings have been dam-
aged by water and smoke,
Byram said.
The Pendleton Fire
Department, Umatilla
Tribal Fire Department,
Umatilla County Fire Dis-
trict No. 1 and other agen-
cies responded to the scene,
at 501 S.E. Emigrant Ave.
The mill plays a “huge”
role in the Pendleton com-
munity, Byram said.
“They’re a major
employer; we are obvi-
ously an agricultural com-
munity that does a lot of
dryland wheat farming,”
he said. “Wheat farmers
from the surrounding area
bring their wheat in here
to the Pendleton fl our mill.
It’s yet to be determined
what the impact is, but I
can gauge it’s going to be
signifi cant.”
Pendleton Assistant Fire
Chief Tony Pierotti told the
East Oregonian newspaper
the silos were full of fi n-
ished grain, so the fuel load
was “extreme.”
bill’s increased taxation and
spending.
In his speech on the fl oor
ahead of the vote, House
Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy said that “passing
this bill today means more
expensive bills for Ameri-
cans tomorrow.”
Farm groups took mixed
stances on the bill. Some,
including the American
Farm Bureau Federation,
raised concerns over tax
increases, while others,
including the National
Milk Producers Federation,
praised its approximately
$40 billion investment in
USDA.
The bill includes $3.1
billion in relief funds for
“distressed” borrowers of
USDA loans and $2.2 bil-
lion in aid for farmers who
have experienced discrimi-
nation from USDA.
The bill will pour
$20 billion into existing
USDA conservation pro-
grams, including $8.45 bil-
lion for the Environmental
Quality Incentives Pro-
gram (EQIP), $6.75 billion
for the Regional Conserva-
tion Partnership Program
(RCPP), $3.25 billion for
the Conservation Steward-
ship Program (CSP) and
$1.4 billion of the Agricul-
tural Conservation Ease-
ment Program (ACEP).
The package will spend
about $14 billion on rural
clean energy programs,
including $9.7 billion to
rural electric cooperatives
for renewable energy proj-
ects, $1.97 billion to the
Rural Energy for American
Program (REAP) and $1
billion for Section 317 loans
related to renewable energy.
The bill creates tax
incentives aimed at chan-
neling billions of dollars
to wind, solar and bat-
tery development. It also
includes subsidies for elec-
tric vehicles.
The package would
direct $500 million to bio-
fuels infrastructure.
It also includes $5 bil-
lion for fi ghting wild-
fi res and boosting carbon
sequestration.
Finally, it includes $4
billion for the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation to improve
drought resilience across the
West.
Did looser liquor laws boost problem drinking?
By ELAINE S. POVICH
Stateline.org
SALEM — Oregon has
joined nearly three dozen
states that plan to extend
pandemic-related liquor laws
allowing curbside pickup
or home delivery of alcohol
to help restaurants, bars
and liquor stores survive
COVID-19 closures.
But some research
shows that the states’ desire
to boost the hospitality
industry might be fueling
binge drinking and higher
overall alcohol consumption.
Of the 35 states (plus the
District of Columbia) that
loosened their cocktails
to-go laws during the pan-
demic, 18 plus D.C. have
made the rules permanent,
and 14 have extended them,
according to the Distilled
Spirits Council of the United
States.
Many factors have
prompted some people to
drink more during the pan-
demic. Some drank to deal
with their anxiety, stress
or grief. Those working at
home had easier access to
alcohol and spent less time
commuting in their cars.
Many normal social inter-
actions were canceled or
curtailed.
But researchers say
looser state liquor laws also
contributed to a rise in binge
drinking and overall con-
sumption, with all the atten-
dant health harms. A May
2020 study by researchers
from the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public
Health found that people
who had alcohol delivered
reported consuming more
drinks and drinking on
more days than people who
obtained it through other
methods.
“With the increase in
availability, we see exces-
sive use,” said Alicia
Sparks, chair of the non-
profi t U.S. Alcohol Policy
Alliance, which lobbied
against looser state laws.
“There’s really strong sci-
ence around increased avail-
ability leading to increased
consumption and increased
harm.”
‘Rethink the drink’
Oregon, which touts its
wineries and breweries in
state advertising, is one of
the states where the debate
between public health advo-
cates and the hospitality
industry ended with relaxed
laws being made perma-
nent. Democratic Gov. Kate
Brown signed a measure
last year that allows licensed
establishments to sell
“mixed drinks and single
servings of wine in sealed
containers for off -premises
consumption.”
Mike Marshall, executive
director of Oregon Recovers,
a nonprofi t that works to
increase access to treatment
and recovery programs to
fi ght addiction, said the deci-
sion to ease access to alcohol
is likely to exacerbate an
already problematic situa-
tion in the state. According
to the Oregon State Med-
ical Examiner’s offi ce, alco-
hol-related deaths surged
73% from 2019 to 2020.
“Increased access leads
to increased consump-
tion, especially with binge
drinkers and underage
drinkers,” Marshall said in
an interview. “In the face of
increased harm and damage
caused by alcohol, the
Oregon Legislature and gov-
ernor thought the best thing
to do was to increase (paths)
for alcohol consumption.”
However, Oregon offi cials
recently launched a “Rethink
the Drink” campaign to per-
suade state residents to take
stock of how much alcohol
they are consuming. Using
public service announce-
ments on various media plat-
forms, the state is trying to
educate Oregonians on how
much alcohol is contained
in diff erent kinds of drinks
and how much it might
take someone to become
impaired.
Erica Heartquist, spokes-
woman for the public health
division of the Oregon
Health Authority, said the
program was not especially
timed to coincide with the
increased drinking during
the pandemic, but the timing
is fortuitous.
“Alcohol is the third-
leading cause of death in
Oregon,” she said. “We love
our beer and our wine in the
Pacifi c Northwest, so we
want to put the brakes on
excessive drinking.”
Harmful impacts
A study by RTI Inter-
national of North Carolina
found an overall increase
in alcohol consumption
that began with the onset
of the pandemic and con-
tinued throughout 2020. In
terms of drinks per month,
alcohol consumption was
39% higher in November
2020 than it was in February
2020, the month before the
pandemic began, according
to the study. Binge drinking
increased by 30% during
the same period. There were
especially large increases
in consumption during that
time frame among Black
and Hispanic women (173%
and 148%, respectively) and
Black men (173%).
Carolina Barbosa, a
health economist at RTI,
said to-go alcohol sales and
expanded delivery services
probably played a role in
the increases. Barbosa said
states are loosening the rules
without regard to the data
on increased alcohol con-
sumption, which can lead
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to numerous public health
consequences such as alco-
holism and liver disease.
“Yes, the problem is in
many states (looser laws) are
becoming permanent,” Bar-
bosa said. “For sure, they
should be rethought.”
But others question the
connection between looser
laws and increased con-
sumption — or even that
people drank more during
the pandemic. The Distilled
Spirits Council, a trade
association, pointed to the
National Survey on Drug
Use and Health, issued by
the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services
Administration. In the most
recent report, which covers
2020, only 15.4% of people
12 or older said they drank
“a little more or much more”
than they did before the
pandemic.
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