The fertilizer industry and climate change legislation
Farm and Ranch August 10, 2009 The U.S. fertilizer industry did not support the climate change bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives recently. In an interview during a Far West Agribusiness Association meeting in Spokane last week, Ford West, President of the Fertilizer Institute, the industry’s trade organization, explained why. West said one reason is that the production of nitrogen fertilizer produces CO2 emissions. West: “That creates some challenges for our industry. But probably the biggest challenge our industry has is we use natural gas as a feedstock. And of course natural gas is the environmental fuel of choice outside of wind and solar because it has a lower carbon footprint than coal. So if we switch everything to natural gas we will drive up the price of natural gas. That will make us non-competitive in the world market, because fertilizer is a world commodity traded on the world market, and we will shutdown more plants in the United States.” West says the U.S. is already importing about 55 percent of its nitrogen. He says fuel switching is real and the House bill did not provide an answer to it and that’s why the industry opposed it. West says they are now working to get the Senate to recognize the problem. He says what the fertilizer industry wants is a carbon reduction bill that keeps fertilizer plants and the jobs that go with them, in the United States. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
