State budget and cap and trade issues for wheat growers in 2010
Washington Ag Today November 24, 2009 The Washington Association of Wheat Growers president for 2010 is Brett Blankenship, a Washtucna area farmer. He says a major issue for growers in 2010 will again be how the legislature deals with a budget deficit. Blankenship: “So we will be in damage control trying to keep taxes low and try to help our legislators come to terms with this revenue shortfall while the economy statewide is still not recovered.” Blankenship says it is more troublesome this year because the state’s budget shortfall will more than likely not be backfilled by federal stimulus money like it was this year. On the national level Blankenship says cap and trade legislation in Congress is a major issue. Blankenship: “None of the proposals in Congress really have been shown to be beneficial to Washington growers. There is a lot of talk about carbon offsets and that, but we haven‘t seen anything we can sign onto yet that wouldn‘t be a negative result for Washington growers.” The U.S. House passed climate change legislation earlier this year but the Senate acknowledged last week it would not complete a cap and trade bill until 2010. Meanwhile the EPA is moving forward on greenhouse gas regulation. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
