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July 21, 2011
July 20, the House Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry held a hearing on the farm bill forestry and energy programs. In the ever-tightening budget environment in Washington, D.C. today, many of the energy title programs may be at risk of dramatic cut-backs or elimination in the next farm bill reauthorization round.
The energy title was first enacted in the 2002 farm bill to advance energy independence and rural economic development. The 2008 farm bill (the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, P.L. 110-246) authorized a dozen programs to research, develop, and support initial deployment of biomass energy crops and feedstocks, bioenergy production, and other renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies across rural America, and authorized more than $600 million to advance these goals over five years. Today, investments in farm bill energy programs help generate new jobs and rural economic development, develop markets for new bioenergy crops, infrastructure and biomass energy technologies, reduce demand for oil imports and dependence on other fossil fuels, and protect the environment.
However, growing demand for nutritional assistance and crop insurance pay-outs this year, in response to ongoing economic hardship and weather-related disasters, will intensify an already intense competition between various farm bill constituencies and programs for portions of the rapidly shrinking budget pie. The level of investment in energy programs has already been deeply cut for fiscal year 2011 (FY11), and, in the House version of the agriculture appropriations bill for FY12, more cuts are proposed.
This hearing was part of a series of hearings that the Committee on Agriculture is holding in preparation for drafting the next five-year farm bill reauthorization. Read the Subcommittee press release about the hearing here .
The Subcommittee received testimony from the following individuals:
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