Ag bills signed by governor; grower on climate change legislation
Washington Ag Today March 17, 2010 Several pieces of legislation that were passed in the regular session of the Washington Legislature have been signed by Governor Gregoire. Among them Senate Bill 6556, which allows the permit fee for agricultural field burning to be raised to a maximum $3.75 an acre. Authority is also provided to charge a permit fee for pile burning not to exceed one dollar per ton. The governor signed Senate Bill 6299, which will end self inspection for cattle ownership transfer. Legislation extending the assessment levied to support the dairy inspection program to June 30th 2015 also got Gregoire’s signature as did a bill that establishes a special category of crop insurance adjusters for the state. Federal climate change legislation and possible ecosystem markets for farmers continues to be a major issue for wheat growers. Whitman County producer Ben Barstow offered his view of the issue after hearing a report during a National Association of Wheat Growers committee meeting at the recent Commodity Classic in Anaheim. Barstow: “A lot of this is speculation. It strikes me that it is similar a lot of previous environmental legislation. We are trying to legislate stuff that we don‘t have the facts on. We don‘t have the numbers on how much carbon I can sequester in eastern Whitman County versus how much I can sequester at Lacrosse. And in spite of all that lack of information and lack of basic science that needs to be done to implement these kind of laws, we are going to go ahead and pass the laws anyway.” So far that hasn’t happened. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ? ?
