Wisconsin currently producing about 220 million gallons a year of ethanol at the five existing ethanol plants. Plans are in the works for construction of six more ethanol plants, and the governor has announced a $450 million program of public and private investment in ethanol production. All for what? Why filling gas tanks, of course. What ever happened to Wisconsin's energy conservation plan? I guess there never was one.
Conserve, Now. Mike Neuman "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot." - Joni Mitchell (from her song: "Big Yellow Taxi") ---------------------------- Losing land, opportunity As farms shrink, so does state's economic potential By AMY RINARD [EMAIL PROTECTED] Posted: Jan. 28, 2007 Wisconsin is losing cropland faster than any other state in the breadbasket of the nation, the Midwest, jeopardizing not only the state's farm economy but also its profitability in the emerging biofuels industry, agriculture and land use, officials say. "This is the biggest opportunity for rural development I've ever seen," state Agriculture Secretary Rodney Nilsestuen said of the focus on replacing foreign oil with homegrown fuels based on corn and other plants. "But we can't have biofuels, biopower, bioproducts without working farmlands and working forestlands." A recent study that compared the economic conditions of states showed that from 2000 to 2005, Wisconsin lost almost 5% of its cropland. Only seven other places - California, Georgia, Vermont, Nevada, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Delaware, none in the Midwest - lost a greater percentage of cropland in that period, according to the study by the non-profit Corporation for Enterprise Development, which generally gave Wisconsin's economy high grades. In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush called on Congress to require the use of 35 billion gallons of ethanol and other alternative fuels, such as biodiesel, by 2017. Bush's strategy is to cut the nation's gasoline consumption by 20% over the next decade and reduce the country's demand for foreign oil. Ethanol is made from corn, and Wisconsin is poised to capitalize on the president's call for increased production. Additionally, Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to announce Tuesday that he will push for more state investment in other sources of renewable energy, including ethanol. Nilsestuen said Wisconsin is producing about 220 million gallons a year of ethanol at the five existing ethanol plants. Plans are in the works for construction of six more ethanol plants, he said, and Doyle has announced a $450 million program of public and private investment in ethanol production. "Four years ago, we produced zero gallons of ethanol," Nilsestuen said. "This is a tremendous opportunity for Wisconsin." But Nilsestuen and others recognize that this opportunity and the future of the state's important agricultural economy could be undercut by the rapid dwindling of farmland in Wisconsin. "We're losing 30,000 acres of quality cropland in Wisconsin every year; that's almost two townships," Nilsestuen said. Steve Hiniker, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin, a non-partisan, land-use planning advocacy group, said it's more important than ever for the state to act to preserve the farmland that's left. "Clearly, the state is embarking on a strategy related to biofuels, and the impact of the loss of farmland goes right to the heart of that strategy," Hiniker said. His organization has long advocated measures to protect farm fields and open space from development. Based on a report of a state task force that included farmers, planners, local officials, businesspeople and builders, Nilsestuen has recommended the state enact measures to help preserve farmland, including: Creation of agriculture enterprise areas to protect clusters of contiguous working farms from development and provide incentives to promote future farming in those areas. A state program to help local governments and organizations buy development rights to protect land permanently from development. An overhaul of the state's Farmland Preservation Program. But when it comes to paying for preservation, efforts often run into opposition at the local level. In Washington County, residents in the Town of Hartford in 2004 rejected a proposed purchase of developments rights program over concerns about the cost to taxpayers. Rich Eggleston, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, said cities in Wisconsin have to grow, and that growth inevitably will mean the loss of farmland. But, he said, development can be done in a way that minimizes the impact on prime farmland and environmentally sensitive areas. "Not every farmer's field is sacred," Eggleston said. "You can't impose an iron ring around a city because there happens to be farmland there. If cities don't grow, they die, but growth can be done in a responsible way." As it is, Wisconsin provides a tax break to farmers in which their land is taxed based on agricultural value, not its potential for development. The "use-value assessment" practice has shifted $1.5 billion in property taxes off of farms and onto other property owners since 1996. Tom Thieding of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation said agricultural enterprise zones could help slow the loss of farmland in areas on the fringe of metro-area development. "Around metro areas, the land already is in conversion," he said. "But in the next ring out, you have to look at how to keep land in production." Ultimately, he said, it is the profitability of farming that will keep farmers in business and slow the conversion of farm fields to subdivisions and strip malls. The biofuels industry has the potential to raise profit margins for farmers, Thieding said, but it remains to be seen if recent high prices will be sustained. "We never say one year will make a career," he said. "But if farming is profitable, a farmer is less likely to sell his land." _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
