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Editorials are written by or
approved by members of the
Capital Press Editorial Board.
Friday, March 18, 2022
Opinion
All other commentary pieces are
the opinions of the authors but
not necessarily this newspaper.
Editor & Publisher
Managing Editor
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com | CapitalPress.com/opinion
Our View
U.S. needs a realistic oil and gas policy
P
resident Biden has blamed the
Russian invasion of Ukraine for
rising fuel prices. But figures show
prices have been on the rise for more than
a year. The invasion and the ensuing bans
on Russian crude have only made the
situation worse.
The price and supply volatility suggest
that the United States needs to revisit its
policies towards the domestic gas and oil
industry even as the country works to tran-
sition to alternative energy sources.
A year ago, the spot price for a barrel of
West Texas Intermediate — a benchmark
crude oil — was $62.29 a barrel and the
average price of a gallon of gas in Oregon
and Washington was $2.89.
As post-COVID demand outstripped
supply, oil prices rose to $91.70 a barrel on
Feb. 18, the last day of trading before the
invasion.
According to the U.S. Energy Infor-
mation Administration, the average retail
price of regular gas in Oregon and Wash-
Mark Duncan/Associated Press File
An oil well pump in the middle of an
Ohio soybean field. President Biden
now wants to increase domestic oil pro-
duction.
ington was $4.32 a gallon on March 7, up
46 cents from the week before and $1.43
over the year before.
The average retail price of on-road
diesel in Oregon and Washington was
$4.978 a gallon on March 7, up 68 cents
from the week before and $1.75 over
the year before.
The United States is still a net exporter
of petroleum, pumping 11.6 million bar-
rels a day, and the Energy Department
forecasts that production will increase by
another million barrels by the end of the
year.
The alternatives are expensive, even
with subsidies. Proponents favor pric-
ing fossil fuels out of the market and forc-
ing consumers to make the transition. That
requires regulatory and policy measures
that limit oil and gas production.
For the most part, the administration is
favorable to that strategy. Throughout the
campaign, candidate Biden said he’d “get
rid of fossil fuels.” While he has yet to suc-
ceed, his policies have made permitting
and production more difficult.
But now the president wants oil com-
panies to start pumping to bring down gas
prices, as if a spigot can be turned on. It
takes a year or more to get a well drilled
and producing, and oil companies make
Cloud seeding can aid collaborative
efforts to restore Idaho’s salmon runs
’ve always been amazed at
what can be accomplished
by working together. Now is
the time to collaborate with our
downstream states to restore the
salmon runs in the Snake River
Basin.
My entire 30-year career as
Idaho’s Water Supply Special-
ist included discussions, proj-
ects and success stories about
recovering salmon and steel-
head. Some $17 billion spent
over 30 years in the Columbia
Basin has prevented these spe-
cies from going extinct, but has
not restored them to sustainable
numbers.
The coordination and man-
agement of the Columbia
Basin’s water is amazing. I’ve
seen first-hand numerous agen-
cies working together to man-
age our water supplies. Did you
know that Brownlee Dam in
the Hells Canyon Complex and
Dworshak Reservoir provide
flood control to cities along the
Columbia River in Washington
and Oregon, including Portland?
Success stories include Idaho
Power’s Collaborative Cloud
Seeding Program in the middle
and upper Snake basins and Ida-
ho’s Managed Recharge Pro-
gram that diverts excess water
into the Eastern Snake River
Plain Aquifer to help stabilize
groundwater levels.
Much has been learned to
master the art of cloud seeding
that increases snow water equiv-
I
GUEST
VIEW
Ron
Abramovich
alent by 7-15%. Melting of this
snow provides an additional 1
million acre-feet of water annu-
ally to be put to use. Success
of this cloud seeding program
is supported by the Idaho State
Legislature’s recent bill to sup-
port additional cloud seeding
opportunities.
Cloud seeding opportuni-
ties in the Salmon and Clearwa-
ter basins should be investigated
to help irrigators and benefit
salmon. Successful cloud seed-
ing to produce more water will
allow water managers the ability
to better shape the hydrograph
for salmon flows. This may
reduce the need for some flow
augmentation water from upper
Snake reservoirs. Cold snow-
melt water from the Clearwater
River headwaters will keep river
temperatures cooler longer and
may reduce or delay the need for
Dworshak water to cool down-
stream river temperatures. This
may also allow Dworshak water
levels to remain full longer in
the summer, as was promised
when the dam was built.
The additional snowmelt
water would also generate
hydropower at Dworshak and
the lower Columbia River dams,
which would help offset power
loss from removing the Snake
River dams.
The four lower Snake River
dams have outlived their life.
The dams’ primary purpose was
to provide an Idaho shipping
port and hydropower. These
accomplishments came with
costs. These dams slowed the
Snake River to a crawl in this
140-mile section, creating miles
of warm water that drastically
impacted Idaho’s salmon and
steelhead migration to the ocean
and back.
Today, we are at critical cross-
roads because of the low num-
ber of fish returning to Idaho. It’s
time to work together with our
downstream neighbors to restore
this river section to a free flow-
ing river, and explore cloud seed-
ing opportunities that benefit fish,
irrigators and power producers.
If you have ever seen these
fish in the wild darting under
your raft, jumping up Dag-
ger Falls on the Middle Fork
Salmon River, or had one tug
the end of your line, then you
understand the thrill of salmon
in the wild.
Ron Abramovich was the
USDA Natural Resources Con-
servation Service Idaho Water
Supply Specialist from 1991 to
2019 providing snow and water
supply information to farmers,
recreationists and industries
that depend on Idaho’s winter
snowfall.
READERS’ VIEW
Editor’s Note: The follow-
ing letter was addressed to
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.
Why Governor
Brown should
veto the ag
overtime bill
Dear Governor Brown:
We, the undersigned agri-
cultural coalition members,
formally ask you to veto House
Bill 4002B. The bill is bad pol-
icy for both farm families and
farm employees and it is the
result of a very bad process.
We ask you to veto this bill
before it does irreparable harm
to all who depend on the ag
community.
Ag producers engaged in
every workgroup and process
in good faith throughout the last
year. They brought solutions to
the table that addressed every
policy objective labor advocates
identified. One example is the
-10 amendments, which would
have taken away tax credits
from farmers and used the funds
instead for direct payments to
farm employees.
There are several similar
examples of where ag produc-
ers attempted to find consensus.
Please note that no signer on this
letter opposed reaching a work-
able bill to grant overtime pay to
ag employees in this process.
The legislature is aware and
acknowledges that the nominal
tax credits in the bill are inade-
quately funded and ineffective
in their design. These tempo-
rary credits will be delayed and
incomplete, and they are subject
to being taken away any time
future legislatures meet.
Additionally, they are lowest
when overtime costs are high-
est. Ag families have repeatedly
testified and steadfastly main-
tained that these credits are not
workable.
Labor advocates refused to
negotiate in any substantive
way this session or the lead-up
to it and they actively blew up
negotiations last fall by filing
a lawsuit and walking away.
This is not the path to a solu-
tion that maximizes benefits to
some while minimizing harm
to others. It is not The Ore-
gon Way.
Ideally, a veto would cause
the legislature to go back and get
this important issue right. How-
ever, we know if you veto the
bill, the BOLI commissioner
has indicated she will initiate
rulemaking on this subject. We
would rather risk a bad outcome
in an evidence- and law-based
process at BOLI than watch this
bad bill deal the fatal blow to our
community.
The threats posed by this bill
are well documented in hours
of farmer testimony from com-
mittee hearings and the floor
speeches of rural legislators.
Solutions that meet the stated
needs of labor advocates are
readily at hand. This does not
have to be a zero-sum activ-
ity. Legislators heard that their
bill accelerates corporatization
of agriculture in Oregon, pushes
families off the farm, and incen-
tivizes increased out-of-state
ownership of farm and ranch
ground while reducing earning
potential for farm employees and
eliminating jobs. They ignored
these certain outcomes.
We ask you to not turn your
back on farm and ranch families
at this pivotal moment.
If the goal is benefitting farm
employees while not ignoring
the existential needs of the farm
and ranch families who employ
them, the only option is to veto
this bill.
Respectfully signed:
Oregon Farm Bureau
Oregon Association of
Nurseries
Oregonians for Food and
Shelter
Oregon Seed Council
Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association
National Federation of Inde-
pendent Business
Columbia Gorge Fruit
Growers
Associated Oregon Hazelnut
Industries
Oregon Wheat Growers
League
Farwest Agriculture
Association
Oregon Dairy Farmers
Association
Oregon State Chamber of
Commerce
expansion plans based on long-term finan-
cial forecasts.
Why would oil companies plan to
expand production during an administra-
tion that’s committed to getting rid of fos-
sil fuels?
We have no animus towards alternative
energy sources, at least those that don’t
impact productive farmland. But we live
in the real world where the needs of every-
day life cannot yet be met by wind, solar
panels and batteries. Trucks, tractors, com-
bines, tanks and fighter jets are still pow-
ered by fossil fuels.
It’s possible that one day our personal
and commercial lives won’t be powered
by fossil fuels, but that day isn’t today, it
won’t be tomorrow, nor probably any day
in the next decade or more.
Until that day arrives, it only makes
sense that U.S. policy facilitates enough oil
and natural gas to ensure our commercial
and strategic energy needs are met.
Bold initiatives
for the future
of agriculture
I
daho and Washington state
have a few things in com-
mon. The Snake River flows
through both states to provide
water the farmers and ranchers
need, and they grow some of the
same commodities. Both states
have farmers and ranchers that
are good stewards of the land.
USDA shares a similar con-
cern of many within agriculture
and this great nation — the nega-
tive impacts of greenhouse gases
and the agriculture industry’s
ability to reduce the nation’s car-
bon footprint.
USDA and the Farm Service
Agency (FSA) are ready and
willing to work with farmers and
ranchers to establish goals of mit-
igating or eliminating the poten-
tial negative impacts to agri-
cultural operations in respect to
climate change.
Agriculture is responsible for
an estimated 10% of U.S. green-
house gas emissions. President
Biden’s proposed Build Back
Better bill includes $28 billion
for climate mitigation, headlined
by a plan to encourage planting
of additional cover crops, the pro-
motion of forestry and agricul-
tural conservation, resilience and
wildfire risk mitigation, and addi-
tionally allows for specialty crops
to be considered as part of the
carbon sequestration credits.
President Biden also supports
Partnership for Climate-Smart
Commodity Funding opportuni-
ties. Climate-Smart commodities
include any agriculture commod-
ity that is produced using agricul-
tural (farming, ranching, forestry)
practices that reduce green-
house gas emissions or seques-
ter carbon. Commodities broadly
include many different crops that
impact Washington and Idaho,
such as: fruits, vegetables, grains,
oilseeds, livestock, dairy, forage
crops, timber, forestry products,
specialty crops, organic crops and
indigenous crops.
All of these programs supported
by President Biden and the Build
Back Better bill will provide eco-
nomic opportunities for farmers
and ranchers in Idaho and Wash-
ington for generations to come
allowing opportunities for new
young farmers and ranchers and
generational family farms to lead
into the next generation with a
reduced carbon footprint.
Many farm kids have decided
to not come back to the family
farm. This is a trend that we need
to reverse.
While watching the President’s
State of the Union with our chil-
dren and grandchildren you could
see a path forward to opportu-
nity for kids to return to the family
farms bringing new ideas, technol-
ogy and investment in new initia-
tives to ensure success.
President Biden’s State of the
Union address is a reminder to
all of us that equity is a signifi-
cant focus for this President. This
administration is growing an econ-
omy from the bottom up and the
GUEST
VIEW
Jon Wyss and
Matt Gellings
middle out. Not top down.
The economy has achieved
its fastest job growth in Ameri-
can history. Biden’s presidency is
about giving everyone a fair shot,
because when given a fair shot,
ordinary people can do extraor-
dinary things. Anyone listening
should find comfort in the mes-
sage that our best days lie ahead.
An example of a positive step
in the right direction is that March
1 marked the first public meeting
of the USDA Equity Commission.
The commission was created to
identify USDA programs and pol-
icies that have contributed to insti-
tutional racism. Members of the
commission are tasked with pre-
venting future wrongs.
As public servants and USDA
appointees in prior capacities and
administrations, we have wit-
nessed many changes at USDA.
Not changes to federal farm pro-
grams but changes nationally and
in both Idaho and Washington
state.
Change is inherent in FSA’s
business model — it’s who we are
as an agency. Programs change as
Congress enacts and we deliver
new farm policy or when we
respond to natural disasters and
pandemics.
Administrations change. We
are proud to serve the Biden-Har-
ris administration. The Farm Ser-
vice Agency is the only govern-
ment agency that has a “grassroots
voice” in how federal farm pol-
icy is administered. Since its
inception, FSA programs have
been locally led, through produc-
er-elected county committees,
which enable input from farm-
ers and ranchers on delivery of
the agency’s critical programs.
The FSA State Committee contin-
ues that voice and is vital to FSA’s
mission.
FSA traces its roots back
to the Great Depression, when
the Farm Security Administra-
tion was created to help Ameri-
can farmers amid a very challeng-
ing time. While FSA’s mission has
expanded over the years, its com-
mitment to helping farmers and
ranchers has not changed.
USDA touches the lives of all
Americans each day in so many
positive ways, and under Sec-
retary Vilsack’s leadership and
the Biden-Harris administration,
USDA is empowering people and
improving lives. We should thank
our farmers “three times a day.”
USDA was established by Pres-
ident Lincoln on May 15, 1862,
during the Civil War. He called it
“The People’s Department.” This
administration is proving it truly is!
Jon Wyss is the Washington
state Farm Service Agency exec-
utive director, and Matt Gellings
is the Idaho state Farm Service
Agency executive director.