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Capital Press Editorial Board.
June 16, 2017
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Opinion
Editorial Board
Editor & Publisher
Managing Editor
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion
O UR V IEW
Zinke, Perdue break with tradition — and listen
F
armers and ranchers
throughout the West are
accustomed to periodic
visits from cabinet offi cials from
Washington, D.C. These tours
have been standard operating
procedure for administrations of
both parties since before the New
Deal.
So it wasn’t surprising when
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny
Perdue and Interior Secretary
Ryan Zinke visited Idaho together
June 2.
Bigwigs from Washington
always come to town for a
reason, usually to deliver the
administration’s talking points
as they relate to a particular
audience.
And Perdue and Zinke
followed tradition. They came
to Boise State University to
vow that their two departments
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, left, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue
speak about farm and natural resource issues June 2 at Boise State University.
Earlier that day, the secretaries met privately with Idaho farmers and ranchers —
and listened.
will partner closely with states
and communities on land
management and other issues.
“We’re here to make that
commitment to you today,”
Perdue said. “We’re (here) talking
direct, eyeball-to-eyeball. We’re
going to make a (change) in the
way we do business.”
Of course they are. Everyone,
Democrats and Republicans,
promises big changes, something
new and better. For eight
years Tom Vilsack, an affable
Iowan who served as President
Obama’s ag secretary, brought the
administration’s message of hope
and change as it applied to rural
issues.
You don’t fl y 2,500 miles to
tell a crowd that nothing is going
to change.
No surprises here.
We’d be willing to write
it off as business as usual, a
harmless, fairly upbeat encounter
that carried with it no real
expectations. But, they also
did something a little different,
something they’re still talking
about in Idaho.
In a closed-door meeting with
10 producers before the Boise
State event, Perdue and Zinke
O UR V IEW
didn’t make speeches. They
listened.
“They just didn’t have an
agenda. They truly wanted to
listen to us,” said Aberdeen
potato farmer Ritchey Toevs.
“It was a pro-producer meeting.
It was a completely different
experience than I’ve ever had.”
It’s not just the farmers and
ranchers who are talking. Gov.
Butch Otter, a seasoned political
hand who has attended these
kinds of events for years, was
surprised.
“They sat there for a solid
hour and listened to 10 different
producers,” Otter told the Capital
Press. “In every case, both the
secretaries ended up with one
question — ‘What can we do to
help you?’ That’s refreshing.”
Indeed. It will be even more
refreshing if they deliver.
Biofuels work for Oregon
By JIM TALENT
For the Capital Press
W
California goes buggy
with newest tax
I
t’s not a big deal — nothing involving insects
generally is — but we couldn’t help but
comment on a new tax that our friends in
California have cooked up.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife plans
to charge a fee to any researcher who collects bugs.
As initially proposed in an 83-page document,
the fee would have been $421.58 per team of
researchers that planned to collect any animal, no
matter how rare. As is often the case with such fees,
they would be accompanied by a requisite pile of
paperwork. According to the paperwork justifying
the change in paperwork, delays in reviewing
applications — paperwork — were a problem.
Really.
Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum
of Entomology at the University of California-
Davis, does a lot of research on insects. She
sees the bug collection fee as an obstruction for
researchers and scientists.
We see it as just another tax. After all,
California taxes virtually everything else — why
not bugs?
California taxes your income and your
company’s payroll. California also taxes
everything you buy in the state — and anything
you bought elsewhere but use in the state.
But that’s just getting warmed up. According
to the state Board of Equalization, it also has
“special” taxes and fees on tires, alcoholic
beverages, cigarettes, electronic waste, diesel
fuel, telephones, electricity, fi re prevention,
hazardous waste, garbage dumps, jet fuel,
batteries, lumber, ballast water from ships,
gasoline, natural gas, lead, oil spills, cell phones,
insurers, storage tanks, utilities and water rights.
And don’t leave out cities and counties,
with their property and sales taxes, and other
jurisdictions, including the Air Resources Board,
which taxes the air — carbon dioxide.
It seems California’s state song should be “Tax
Man,” that old Beatles tune. “If you drive a car,
I’ll tax the street, If you try to sit, I’ll tax your
seat. If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat. If you
take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.”
What was missing? Bugs, of course. After all,
this has the potential to bring in unlimited income
for the state. There are an estimated 100,000
types of insects in California — about 6 percent
haven’t even been named — and a bajillion of
each type.
Let’s see, that’s 100,000 times a bajillion —
the state would be rolling in dough if it could
just fi gure out a way to tax anyone who wants to
collect them.
Ironically, because most insect research is
conducted by state university scientists, the fee
would boil down to the state taxing itself, an
innovation most governments haven’t fi gured out.
After researchers squawked about the tax —
er, fee — they would have to pay to collect bugs,
the folks at the Department of Fish and Wildlife
relented. They plan only to tax researchers who
collect bugs from an elite list of “special” bugs.
Which is good, because they wouldn’t want to
seem greedy.
ith all the hype sur-
rounding the oil
boom, it’s tempting
to pretend that America is on
a glide path toward energy in-
dependence.
Unfortunately, even as
fracking reached new heights,
America’s total domestic
crude oil production declined
in 2016. According to new
data from the U.S. Energy
Information Administration,
that lost domestic energy pro-
duction was quickly replaced
by rising imports from the
Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC),
with Iraq leading the pack as
the fastest growing source of
America’s imported oil.
This boom-and-bust cycle
has been playing out since the
1970s, when foreign oil min-
isters fi rst attempted to hold
America’s economy hostage.
Those of us old enough to re-
member can still picture lines
of cars winding around the
block from every fi lling sta-
tion. Thankfully, the episode
prompted a renewed focus on
energy security that eventu-
ally gave rise to policies like
the Renewable Fuels Standard
(RFS).
I worked with then Sen.
Tim Johnson of South Dakota
to pass the RFS over 11 years
ago. It was later extended
by the Congress, and today,
ethanol and other biofuels
meet about 10 percent of our
transportation fuel needs.
America’s dependence on
oil imports has fallen by half
since 2005, and the rising con-
tributions of renewable energy
sources continue to surpass
expectations.
Some argue that renewable
energy goals confl ict with free
markets, but that’s never been
true. Even at today’s relatively
low prices, petroleum-based
fuels cost far more than home-
grown ethanol, which sells for
about $1.60 per gallon.
But it could be even lower.
Biofuel producers don’t have
the luxury of selling directly
to customers in a competitive
market. Biofuels are sold to
oil refi ners and importers be-
fore they can be added to the
fuel mix found at local gas
stations.
For years, these companies
limited consumer options at
the pump. The legacy of that
monopoly is our continued
vulnerability to price manip-
Guest
comment
Jim Talent
ulation by foreign energy pro-
ducers within OPEC that have
now joined forces with Russia
to cut global energy supplies
and increase prices for U.S.
drivers.
To insulate consumers
from this threat, the RFS re-
quires oil refi ners to make
biofuel blends available to
consumers, and demand con-
tinues to grow as retailers seek
to market lower-cost, high-
er-octane options. With that
growth has come lower prices
and economic development
in states like Oregon, where
companies like Pacifi c Etha-
nol and SeQuential Biodiesel
produce homegrown fuels.
As an agricultural leader,
Oregon is already home to
nearly 16,000 jobs support-
ed by biofuel production. As
an added benefi t, the process
leaves all the nutrients and
protein intact, generating a
surplus of low-cost animal
feed that helps Oregon ranch-
ers keep our grocery coolers
stocked with top-quality meat.
Homegrown biofuels also
dramatically reduce carbon
emissions. The latest U.S.
Department of Agriculture
data show that conventional
ethanol emits 43 percent few-
er emissions than gasoline,
and that number is on the rise
thanks to innovations in sus-
tainable agricultural.
Unfortunately, fossil fuel
interests are as adept at ma-
neuvering politicians as they
are at manipulating prices,
and the RFS remains an on-
going target for those who
want to turn back the clock.
Oregonians should remind
their representatives in Con-
gress that having renewable
options at the pump is more
than just a way to clear the
air — it’s a national security
priority.
Former U.S. Sen. Jim
Talent currently serves as
chairman of Americans for
Energy Security and Innova-
tion, which supports home-
grown, renewable energy to
reduce our dependence on
foreign oil. He represented
the state of Missouri in Con-
gress from 1993 to 2007 and
served on the Senate Armed
Services, Energy and Natural
Resources and Agriculture
committees.
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