Thirty Minnesota and Wisconsin state legislators signed a letter urging their congressional delegations to vote against construction of a nearly $700 million bridge across the St. Croix River near Stillwater.

The legislators, many of whom are from the states’ larger cities, said the bridge was simply too expensive.

“As things currently stand, Minnesota will be forced to divert $160 million of its federal allocation and up to $220 million of state highway and bridge funding. Wisconsin will also need to utilize general fund resources, competing directly with education, healthcare and other priorities,” the legislators wrote. “In choosing the most expensive option, H.R. 850 further constrains our states’ already limited resources for critical bridge repairs and road safety projects.”

The legislators called the proposed bridge “wasteful” and urged Congress to allocate funds to take care of all infrastructure safety needs.

“It is particularly striking when one considers that no new net economic development would occur if this massive bridge were to be built,” Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis) said in a statement. “On the contrary, this bridge would divert jobs and revitalization investments anticipated for the Twin Cities metropolitan area.”

A less expensive option is supported by Rep. Betty McCollum (DFL-Minn.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (DFL-Minn.), while Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann and all four U.S. senators from both states support the more expensive option.

The more expensive bridge would also violate a section of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

There have also been some public relations missteps by bridge supporters. The blog Ripple in Stillwater earlier reported that Stillwater had used $80,000 in public funds to lobby for the more expensive option, which the city said it would return to Washington County after a critical audit.

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Source: lindsey gee, Flickr

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that next year it will require oil and gas companies to publicly disclose the release of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas, which can be deadly in high enough concentrations.

The industry has been exempt from divulging the release of H2S to the federal Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 17 years. The removal of the exemption was first published in the Federal Registry in October and finalized last week. Conservation groups praised the decision.

“[H2S] may leak from drill rigs and refineries, but is often also deliberately burned off, exposing nearby communities to its harmful effects,” the environmental group Earthworks stated in a press release.

Hydrogen sulfide, which occurs naturally in oil and gas drilling, can sicken workers and community members who are exposed to high enough concentrations of the gas.

“Common symptoms of exposure to long-term, low levels of hydrogen sulfide include headache, skin complications, respiratory and mucous membrane irritation, respiratory soft tissue damage and degeneration, confusion, impairment of verbal recall, memory loss, and prolonged reaction time,” Earthworks warns. “Exposure to high concentrations can cause unconsciousness and can be fatal.”

The gas was a hot topic on Colorado’s Western Slope this summer when state regulators were accused of misleading the public concerning the release of H2S at several Noble Energy natural gas wells on the Roan Plateau in 2009.

Regulators for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) were accused of not being totally forthright on the issue of H2S release at Noble wells in 2009 until a whistleblower came forward.

Silt Mesa resident Carl McWilliams was a contractor for Noble when he became sick—an incident that led to a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fine. Another contractor died of what the coroner determined was a heart attack unrelated to H2S emissions, but McWilliams disputes that conclusion and now says he’s been ostracized by the industry.

The COGCC found that four Noble wells had H2S levels greater than 100 parts per million (PPM) in 2009, and the agency in September posted its findings on the COGCC website (pdf). In a separate fact sheet (pdf), the COGCC states that levels of between 200 and 300 PPM can lead to “marked conjunctivitis and respiratory tract irritation after 1 hour of exposure.” Levels higher than 500 PPM can lead to loss of consciousness and possibly death in 30 minutes to 1 hour.”

“Our initial priority, obviously, was to look at current circumstances and to ensure that there were not significant risks to public health, safety or welfare, and I think we satisfied ourselves that there is not,” COGCC director David Neslin told the Colorado Independent in September.

The EPA is engaged in a rulemaking process on hydraulic fracturing emissions, which has prompted threats of litigation from states such as North Dakota, where a major drilling boom is going on in the Bakken Shale.

Community activists in Colorado and elsewhere in the nation say the EPA must do more to regulate the industry as domestic oil and gas production steadily increases in areas with more dense populations than the Western Slope of Colorado. Groups around Colorado accuse local and state regulators of dropping the ball on issues ranging from air emissions to water quality to setbacks for rigs near homes, businesses and public buildings.

In the run-up to last month’s Senate vote that likely denied the USDA the right to limit potatoes in school lunches, U.S. Sen. Al Franken and eight other Democratic senators from potato-growing regions pushed hard on the federal agency.

In a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack (below), the eight senators proposed that potatoes are healthier if topped with broccoli. The letter recommends that the USDA consider food preparation when compiling guidelines.

A Senate amendment to take away the agency’s ability to limit potatoes passed on Oct. 18, and will likely be merged with a House version.

The proposed rule limited kids’ lunches to one cup of starchy vegetables every week, which includes white potatoes, corn, lima beans and peas. The rule would also have removed starchy vegetables from breakfasts, limit sodium intake and mandate more non-starchy vegetables during lunches, among other nutritional improvements.

Franken said the rule change could “disproportionately affect” agricultural producers “without necessarily improving student nutrition,” according to a post Monday on his Senate site.

“While I applaud the USDA’s efforts to improve vegetable variety in our nation’s schools, it’s important that we consider the possible consequences of this rule on our farmers, and its disproportionate effect on Minnesota,” Franken said in the statement. “That’s why I urged the USDA to give our children the nutritious foods they need without making dramatic cuts to the dietary staples provided by Minnesota’s agricultural producers.”

The letter to Vilsack proposed that potatoes can be healthier if topped with broccoli. The letter recommends that the USDA consider food preparation when compiling guidelines.

The cost of the entire proposed rules, which covers many areas of nutrition, could have reached an addition $6.8 billion over five years, according to the USDA report. The revisions are designed to combat the childhood obesity epidemic and prevent related health problems.

Groups like the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine have advocated for healthier school lunches. Other advocates, like Chef Ann Cooper of the Food Family Farming Foundation, have said opposing the new limits on starchy vegetables doesn’t serve the best interest of children’s nutrition.

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In a 235-186 vote this week, the House passed the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2011, which approves the trade of 2,400 acres of federal land for 5,000 acres controlled by the mining company. The Minnesota House delegation split its vote along party lines.

A Rio Tinto subsidiary, Resolution Copper Mining, is seeking the land swap in order to better access what it claims may be the largest copper ore body in the world near Superior, Ariz. Another subsidiary of Rio Tinto, Kennecott, is exploring a non-ferrous mining site in northeast Minnesota. Minnesota has no working non-ferrous mines, although some are nearing the end of their permitting process.

The land sought by the mining company in Arizona includes the Tonto National Forest’s Oak Flat Campground, which was recognized as an important natural resource and placed off limits to mining activity by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1955. The mining company claims that the project will create jobs.

In testimony to the U.S. Senate Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests in June 2009, Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon (Arizona) Chapter argued that the land swap will diminish recreational opportunities and threaten rare and endangered plants and animals including the black-chinned sparrow, Costa’s hummingbird, Lewis’ woodpecker, and the endangered Arizona hedgehog cactus.

Bahr also warned that the mine will deplete the area’s already scarce water supply.

“According to Resolution Copper Company (RCC), this mine will need as much as 20,000 acre-feet of water per year. An acre-foot of water is roughly the amount of water a family of four uses in one year, so 20,000 acre-feet is enough water for 20,000 families or 80,000 people for one year,” she said. “Considering how important as water is in Arizona, the continued long-term droughts we experience, and the predictions of scientists that we are going to get hotter and drier due to the impacts of climate change, it would be irresponsible to move this bill without a thorough analysis and some strong assurances that the water will be there and will not risk riparian areas or drinking water supplies.”

In 2009 the National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution that asked the U.S. federal government to recognize and protect the area’s cultural and spiritual value and to protect it from mining.

The Congress said that mining this area will “break the relationships between tribes and all the elements of the natural world in this region,… result in the diminishment of the power and effectiveness of tribal ceremonies, songs, prayers, and traditional life … and add to physical and mental illnesses, and social problems.”

This is not the first time the company has run afoul of both Native Americans or environmentalists. Another Rio Tinto subsidiary, Kennecott Eagle, is developing a nickel and copper mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on land that is considered sacred by local tribes. They are also facing a lawsuit in Wisconsin over the leaching of toxic chemicals from a mine there and another suit by citizens of Papua New Guinea accusing them of engaging in genocide and human rights violations for another mine in that country.

The land swap bill is supported by business groups including the American Supply Association, the Associated General Contractors of America, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Mining Association, Rio Tinto, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, and Americans for Prosperity, according to Maplight, a nonpartisan organization that researches money in politics.

Maplight found that supporters of the bill spent 14 times as much as those opposing it.

The group found that metal mining and processing groups gave on average 22 times as much to House Republicans that voted “yes” as they gave to House Republicans that voted “no”.

Amendments to exempt Native American heritage sites from the land transfer, charge royalties on the minerals extracted from the transfered land and require that the company hire local workers were all rejected in the House.

The split decision overturns an earlier dismissal of the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of 10,000 residents of the island of Bougainville who revolted against conditions in the mine in 1988, leading to a government crackdown and many deaths, Reuters reports.

“The complaint alleges purposeful conduct undertaken by Rio Tinto with the intent to assist in the commission of violence, injury, and death, to the degree necessary to keep its mines open,” Judge Mary Schroeder wrote.

Rio Tinto denies all liability.

Kennecott Exploration is a member of the Rio Tinto group of companies. Kennecott is exploring a site near Tamarack, a town of less than 100 people in northeast Minnesota.

Kennecott is also a member of Mining Minnesota, the industry’s lobbying group, which advocates for non-ferrous mining in the state. There are currently no non-ferrous mines operating in Minnesota, although some companies are nearing the end of the permitting process. The mining technique is controversial because of its environmental impacts.

Source: Flickr, jimmywayne

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens Board unanimously approved water quality permits for an expansion of a taconite facility on the Iron Range Tuesday.

The permits leave only one more step before the expansion, which will cost about $300 million, create 120 permanent jobs and increase the capacity of the plant, according to Keetac owner, U.S. Steel.

The development has been heralded by both DFL and Republican politicians in Northeast Minnesota.

“I commend U.S. Steel for its commitment to Minnesota communities and the pollution controls that will help keep our environment clean,” Rep. Chip Cravaack said in a statement Tuesday. “Everyone’s number one priority is jobs, and the MPCA decision is encouraging news that assures me we’re on the right track.”

The expansion was also a point of contention, partly because of its proximity to wetlands where people harvest wild rice, which can be affected by the plant’s sulfate runoff. The final Environmental Impact Statement found the expansion could significantly impact other areas like wildlife and wetlands. Environmentalists failed to delay the vote, or to install even stricter conditions, the Associated Press reported.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency officials resisted a push by environmentalists that the agency comply with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency request that they upload Keetac data to a public database.

But the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency did convene a Wild Rice Standards Advisory Committee made up of representatives of the American Indian community, mining industry and environmental groups.

The permits that were approved Tuesday require U.S. Steel to comply with the state’s sulfate standard by 2019, which currently isn’t enforced. The Associated Press found that the plant already violates the standard. Representatives of U.S. Steel said the company plans to install even cleaner technology.

U.S. Steel still needs to obtain a wetlands permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Source: istockphoto.com

Pumping that golden elixir — corn-ethanol — into the gas tank can do a world of good, or so goes the argument.

It relieves the U.S. from dependency on foreign oil, some reports say, and it reduces the pollution spewed out the tailpipe.

But, those benefits may take a high human toll.

Over 80 percent of the world’s supply of corn comes from five countries. The U.S. leads the pack, supplying over half of world’s exports, according to a study released Oct. 13 at the World Food Prize in Des Moines.

Three years ago, the world went through a food crisis generated in part by high prices and experts still debate the extent to which ethanol production should be blamed.

There was enough food on the market, but high prices reduced many of the world’s poor to hunger, said Josette Sheeran, the director of the United Nation’s World Food Program. Contributing to the crisis, were countries that cut exports of in-demand crops.

Hunger is not limited to these periods of extreme global crisis. Every ten seconds a child dies of hunger, Sheeran said in a speech in July.

By 2050, there will be roughly nine billion people to feed on this planet. Already, one in seven people suffer from chronic hunger.

“We are living in a post-surplus world,” Sheeran said. “The world has to be a lot smarter about how we are using our supplies.”

The food market is increasingly volatile, the International Food Policy Research Center says. The use of biofuels ties food prices to the volatile oil market and contributes to low supplies.

During the 2008 food crisis, the price of food shot up about 43 percent, according to a release by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Experts worry low food stocks, high demand and food price volatility could lead to future food crises.

While people in many nations struggle to find money for food, most people in the U.S. don’t. They spend roughly 6.4 percent of their budgets on food eaten at home, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. But in low-income countries, like Pakistan and Kenya, people spend roughly 45 percent of their budgets on food, the research service reported.

The Food and Agriculture Association says using agricultural land to produce biofuels “substantially affects food production.” As the production of biofuels doubles to meet policy requirements, the impact “would probably be intolerably high…for the next few years until the production of food has increased to meet the growing demand,” the association said in a report released after the 2008 food crisis.

Such numbers provide the backdrop for a contentious food-versus-fuel debate among politicians, farmers and humanitarian aid groups.

U.S. Ethanol Policy Impacts World Food Supply
Government subsidies for ethanol production in the U.S. has become part of the controversy.

A federal subsidy and a protective tariff on foreign imports, which are set to disappear at the end of the year, have buttressed the corn ethanol industry in the U.S. for years.

The subsidy commands $5 billion from the federal budget, which translates to 45-cents per gallon given to blenders who use ethanol. The tariff, a 54-cent tax on imported ethanol, helps to keep U.S. ethanol competitive with ethanol from Brazilian sugarcane and other sources.

To help the industry even more, a federally mandated Renewable Fuels Standard requires the production of 12.6 billion gallons of ethanol this year and 15 billion by 2015.

But those measures may soon undergo major changes. Opposition to the subsidy has emerged in the Republican Party’s presidential nomination campaign. And a bill introduced on Oct. 5 would make the mandate dependent upon the supply of corn. If in effect today, the proposal would lower the Renewable Fuels Standard by 25 percent due to recent low corn stocks, said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) a sponsor of the bill

Dermot Hayes, a professor of economics and finance at Iowa State University, said subsidies won’t have a major impact on ethanol production, because they were mainly used to get the plants built.

However, Hayes, who holds the Pioneer Hi-Bred International Chair in Agribusiness, said if the government shut off all its support for ethanol and the industry got stuck purchasing expensive corn without aid, it would “go broke.”

Lucy Norton, managing director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, said, “We have enough supply to provide crops for all markets.”

Norton said a third of the corn used for ethanol returns to the market as distiller’s grain, a production by-product used as livestock feed. The price of grain, including corn, has increased due to the end of a period of artificially low prices, when the price of corn was below the cost of production, she added.

Jason Hill, an assistant professor in bioproducts and biosystems engineering at the University of Minnesota, disagreed. Hill said the large amount of corn devoted to ethanol not only affects the price of corn, but also soybeans and cotton.

“Acres of cotton are shifted out to make room for soy as soy is shifted out to make room for more corn,” Hill said. “It’s simple economics. Using corn for ethanol rather than feed does have a global effect.”

Hill questioned whether distillers grain sufficiently replaces corn devoted to ethanol.

“Let’s assume one-third does go into distillers grain,” Hill said. “That still leaves two-thirds.”

He rejected arguments that corn used for ethanol doesn’t come from a food source. Any corn not used for ethanol or eaten as a vegetable or high fructose corn syrup is used for food, because it is fed to the livestock that we eat, Hill said.

“What is a chicken,” former Agricultural Minister for Brazil Roberto Rodrigues asked, when discussing his country’s increased production of poultry in an interview. “It is an egg full of corn and soybeans that flies.”

The Politics of Ethanol
The ethanol industry has boomed in the U.S. largely because of politics, Hill said. There is no credible study proving ethanol decreased greenhouse gases, and that it has only a negligible effect on reducing our dependence on foreign oil, he added.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 expanded the Renewable Fuel Standard to the production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel.

Biofuel from corn is capped at 15 billion gallons, so the corn-ethanol industry is not expected to expand much once the cap is reached in 2015.

The production of corn ethanol is notably inefficient, but the government continues to subsidize its production. Meanwhile, Brazil produces far more efficient biofuel from sugarcane, but representatives from the Brazilian biofuels industry say the U.S. use of tariffs prevent ethanol development.

The gap in energy yield between corn and sugar cane is stark. One unit of fossil fuel energy is required to produce 1.5 units of corn ethanol, according to a study on bioenergy development published by the World Bank. In sharp contrast, the same amount of fossil fuels will produce eight units of sugar cane ethanol.

Cellulosic biofuel, or fuel made from non-food sources like switchgrass, corn stover or forest residues, was supposed to reach 16 billion gallons by 2022 in accordance with the fuel standard. However, a study released by the National Research Council, said meeting this mandate is unlikely as production is not yet possible on the commercial scale.

Lack of Land Seen as the Problem
Hayes argued that whichever way you plant it, land is the scarce resource, not corn.

“Here in Iowa you can grow switchgrass, corn, soybeans,” Hayes said, but planting switchgrass would still take that corn out of production.

A July report commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Foundation concluded that no single factor causes food price increases.

Crystal Carpenter, a senior consultant for Informa Economics, said the report does not argue that biofuels haven’t had any impact, but rather that ethanol is one of many factors, including energy costs, weather, and the economic exchange rate, many of which cannot be controlled.

“But, producing biofuels could be a balancing force to help mitigate volatility in energy prices, and it is one thing we do have control over,” Carpenter said.

Corn Stocks
U.S. markets are linked to foreign markets, even in remote regions of Africa, Sheeran said during a press conference at the World Food Prize. Sheeran described a 2008 visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where “everything was moving on donkeys.” But, even there, the Internet permeated, she said.

Sheeran said she spoke with a man selling teff, a type of small grain.

“When I asked him how he set his prices, he said, ‘I go on the Internet every morning and check the prices on the Chicago board of trade. I use those prices, but discount them 10 percent since we are a poor nation.’”

Low stocks and high prices in the U.S. spell bad news for foreign consumers.

Devoting over one-third of corn to biofuels contributes to price volatility because the mandates are too rigid to respond to fluctuating supplies, according a report at the World Food Prize by the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Abandoning Ethanol Called Unrealistic
The biofuels industry has become a significant presence in Iowa’s economy. With 41 ethanol plants and 14 biodiesel refineries, the industry supplies roughly 577,000 jobs and provides an income source for farmers, according to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

Ethanol production reduced gas prices by roughly 25-cents a gallon from 2000 to 2010, a study conducted by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University says.

“Five years ago, gas was more expensive than diesel prices,” Hayes, a co-author of the study, noted. He said the biggest gas-price declines were in areas with higher ethanol use.

Ethanol provides about 10 percent of the gas moving American vehicles, Hayes said. Stopping ethanol production would require more imports in an already tight oil market, which would raise gas prices by 41 to 92 percent, the study estimates. But, Hayes said the rise would be short-lived.

Hill said the present fuel solution lies more in the field of efficiency and conservation than in biofuels. A one-mile increase in gas mileage would do more for energy independence than the annual production of 14 billion gallons of ethanol would, Hill said.

This story was produced by IowaWatch.org, the news website of the non-profit, non-partisan Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism.

President Obama’s 2012 campaign has a new senior adviser — a former lobbyist for the company pushing the Keystone XL pipeline, who also lobbied for Comcast throughout the period that the media conglomerate was seeking approval for its merger with NBC-Universal.

The campaign hired Broderick Johnson of the lobbying firm Bryan Cave LLP this week. According to U.S. House of Representatives records, Johnson lobbied to “support submission of a presidential permit for Keystone XL pipeline” in the final quarter of 2010.

Environmentalists are upset with the pipeline and with Pres. Barack Obama’s unwillingness to reconsider the project.

According to Friends of the Earth campaigner Kim Huynh:

“President Obama ran for office in 2008 promising that the days of lobbyists setting the agenda in Washington were over, yet now he’s hired a top oil pipeline lobbyist into his campaign,” Huynh said. “This is a deeply troubling development. A lobbyist who has taken corporate cash to shill for this dirty and dangerous pipeline now has even more opportunity to whisper into the President’s ear.”

On Oct. 6, Friends of the Earth and the Center for International Environmental Law and Corporate Ethics International amended (pdf) a Freedom of Information Act request to include a request for State Department documents involving Johnson and other pipeline lobbyists.

Bryan Cave earned more than $1 million from 2009-2011 from its lobbying activities on behalf of TransCanada.

Johnson was also a lobbyist in Comcast’s massive effort to influence the Federal Communications Commission to approve a merger with NBC-Universal, which made it one of the biggest media conglomerates in American history, as the Minnesota Independent reported. Sen. Al Franken was a prominent critic of the merger, which consumer advocates said would reduce options and increase costs for customers.

Brian Cave LLP received at least $440,000 in lobbying income from Comcast from 2009-2011, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Johnson is listed on the House disclosure forms throughout the period, some of the forms disclose his role as “advocacy work regarding Comcast/NBC-U transaction.”

The Comcast merger was approved in early 2011. Later this year, Comcast snapped up FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, who supported the merger, as the new Comcast vice president for government affairs, what’s known in Capitol circles as the “revolving door.”

Johnson himself has held a number of official and lobbying positions, including deputy assistant to the President for legislative affairs in the Clinton White House. Johnson was also an informal advisor for Obama’s 2008 election, according to his bio on another firm’s website.

Ed Brayton contributed to this report.

TransCanada, owners of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, promised Nebraska state legislators this week to take additional steps to protect environmental safety if the project is approved by the federal government.

The Canadian pipeline company made several guarantees to Nebraska lawmakers, including a $100 million bond to ensure adequate funds to clean up after any oil spills, as the state’s legislature considered holding a special session to consider legislation to force the company to change Keystone’s route…

In a letter to the Speaker of the Nebraska legislature, Sen. Mike Flood, TransCanada also offered to build a concrete containment ditch around the pipeline where it cross the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills area, to locate a rapid spill-response team in the Sand Hills, to encase the pipeline with an additional protective coating in certain areas, to provide free water testing to nearby land owners and to pay for state regulators to hire a special public liaison officer to handle concerns about the pipeline.

In the event of a major spill, $100 million would likely only be a fraction of the cost of cleanup. Last year’s spill of nearly a million gallons of tar sands oil in Calhoun County is expected to cost at least $700 million to clean.

Four leaders of congressional agriculture committees sent a letter to congressional “super committee” members proposing $23 billion in agricultural cuts Monday.

The cuts would come in the Farm Bill, which expires next year. The committee members hope the voluntary reductions, which they propose to put together in detail by Nov. 1, will inoculate agriculture from further cuts from the congressional super committee.

The letter is signed by Agricultural Committee Senate Chair Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), House Chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and ranking member Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan).

“We are currently finalizing the policies that would achieve $23 billion in deficit reduction and will provide a complete legislative package by November 1, 2011. Deficit savings at this level is more than any sequestration process would achieve and should absolve the programs in our jurisdiction from any further reductions.”

Mary Kay Thatcher, director of Public Policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation told American Agriculturalist that nutrition and crop insurance programs will probably be mostly safe.

“There aren’t really specifics as far as how much cuts are coming to commodities versus conservation versus nutrition,” Thatcher said. “Certainly the word on the street has been fairly significant that the committees are recommending elimination of direct payments and moving toward more of a revenue loss program but nothing in writing that spells out those kinds of details.”

Some House Republicans have proposed higher cuts of up to $50 billion, according to Agriculture.com. Earlier in the month, two congressional Republicans proposed to cut $40 billion from agriculture, including steep cuts to farm subsidies, conservation and nutrition.