01/21/09 The Energy Efficiency Northwest Ag Project

Washington Ag January 21, 2009 Members of the state Senate Agriculture and Rural Development Committee recently heard that most energy efficiency programs for agriculture currently focus on electricity use on the farm. However, Jeff Canaan, Bioenergy Coordinator for the Washington State Department of Agriculture, told lawmakers that electricity accounts for only about 25 percent of on farm energy use and is relatively stable in price. Fuel and fertilizer meanwhile account for 75 percent of on farm energy use and have become highly volatile in price. It's improvement in fuel and fertilizer efficiency that a WSDA program, Energy Efficiency Northwest Agriculture Project, has been designed to address. Canaan" "There are a couple of opportunities that go along with that. One is carbon markets. Energy efficiency is directly linked to carbon emissions, so where we can improve energy efficiency in agriculture we will also get carbon benefit. And with the cap-and-trade system there may be some opportunity for producers to benefit from those gains. Another opportunity is the farm bill. The bulk of farm bill funding goes to Midwest states. This is an opportunity for northwest producers, and Washington producers in particular, to get access to some new elements in the farm bill." Canaan said people would be trained to do energy audits on farms to improve fuel and fertilizer efficiency. He roughly estimated savings for Washington producers at current fuel and fertilizer costs at 34 million dollars annually. But if you used prices from just a few months ago those savings would be 77 million dollars. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.