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A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
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The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
When American dignitaries arrive in Copenhagen next week to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference the nation will be signaling much more than its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases, said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks at an event in Washington, D.C., June 11, 2009. (Photo: usda.gov)
“This doesn’t just impact and affect climate change,” Vilsack noted during a teleconference Wednesday. “The discussions that are going to take place in Copenhagen aren’t just about climate change. They are about America’s leadership position internationally and the capacity of America to be competitive in the future.”
If the United States chooses to “punt” on climate change or signals that the country is not interested in dealing with the issue, Vilsack said that he guarantees agriculture ministers throughout the world would make economic hay of the decision, perhaps taking steps to discourage purchases of U.S. commodities.
“I can just hear some of my good friends … being able to say that they have addressed and are responding to climate change and that America is not,” he said. “That would be a persuasive thing for a lot of countries in terms of the decisions they make in purchasing commodities and livestock that they can’t produce themselves.
“This is about international leadership. It is about our capacity to remain competitive. It is so much broader than simply climate change. I think we have to be aware of that of that. I think we have to recognize that, and I think that is one of the reasons the President is insistent on this being a part of our domestic agenda. I think he also recognizes the capacity for this to unleash the innovation that has always been America’s advantage competitively is unprecedented.”
Vilsack, who visited China as governor of Iowa and recently returned from another trip to the country as secretary of Agriculture, said that the Chinese should be praised for their recent discussions regarding energy intensity as it relates to the growth of their economy. He also cautioned that if the U.S. doesn’t act quickly, the nation is in danger of losing its competitive edge.
“I can tell you that [China] is a nation that is very focused on being the leader in innovation,” he said. “They are making a commitment to renewable energy that is unprecedented for them and, in some circumstances, unprecedented globally. We cannot afford to let China get the edge on us in renewable energy, biofuels, new technologies, smart grids, energy efficiency — in all the issues that are involved in climate change and all of the economic opportunity that is involved. We cannot let them get the edge. We have always got to remain the Innovation Nation.”
Vilsack will join President Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson, Council on Environmental Quality chairwoman Nancy Sutley and Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change, in Copenhagen.
The trip has become more contentious in light of more than 1,000 leaked e-mails and documents, copied from the servers of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Climate skeptics have quoted portions of the documents as evidence that the case for global warming has been over-stated and that the research may have been biased. School officials have said that the quotations from the documents have been taken out of context and were brought forward now in an attempt to stain the conference before it begins.
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican long known for his belief that global warming is “the greatest hoax every perpetuated on the American people,” has called for congressional hearings to determine if taxpayer-funded research was manipulated. He has also asked U.S. researchers to “secure” documents related to the British university.
The request for hearings comes as Phil Jones, the lead British researcher and author of many of the leaked documents, has stepped down from his post, pending a review of data security and how the scientist and university has responded to information requests. Because a professor in the meteorology department at Penn State University has also been implicated in the hacked documents, that school has also opened an investigation.
The controversy is disappointing, Vilsack said, because of the opportunities that lie ahead for rural America in conjunction with climate change legislation, including potential cap-and-trade legislation.
“I think this is the first time — when you look at all of what is going on in rural America with broadband expansion, with new energy opportunities, with climate change legislation, with our capacity to do a better job of linking local production to local consumption and creating additional markets, and our continued stress of trade and opening up markets — I think we are on the cusp of some real new opportunities in rural America that we haven’t seen in quite some time. I don’t think we should be fearful of it, I think we should embrace it,” he said.
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