Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association, CropLife America, and Renewable Fuels Association. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.
And now for today’s commentary –
Why don’t we do more to address our fuel problems? We are in the process of planting the 2022 crops. All the reports tell us that there is severe risk of a world food shortage. Solving this problem is not going to be helped by the sky rocketing cost of diesel fuel – a 56% increase. Farmers across the U.S., Europe and the rest of the world are not sure how to deal with the short supply of fuel. Our farm crop prices are high also but balancing the cost of production with demand and prices will be a challenge. In Europe they drive far more diesel cars than we do. The trucks hauling everything in the U.S. and Europe burn diesel fuel. That added cost is not helping to solve our supply distribution problem. In Europe the cost of diesel fuel has jumped 88% over the last year.
Keep in mind Europe has joined with the U.S. to punish Russia for the invasion of Ukraine by agreeing to stop buying energy from Russia. Russia is by far Europe’s primary supplier of fuel. President Biden a few months ago turned to U.S. petroleum companies and asked them to increase production to help supply Europe. Perhaps they would like to do that, but earlier they were told they would have to cut production to fight climate change. So, they haven’t been very quick to spend the money to crank up production. Nevertheless, we did have companies last November that were aggressively interested in two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one in Alaska. But just last week the Interior Department announced the cancellation of those three offshore oil and gas leases.
Three years ago, the U.S. used to be energy independent. We were a net exporter. It looks like the political power of global warming is closing the door on our source of energy. Today’s priority should be to feed the world and bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end. We need energy resources to do that. Anyone connected to the farm understands how serious this energy problem is. We need fuel for our tractors, combines and trucks. Nitrogen is our most important fertilizer and that is made from natural gas. We market our crops to countries all over the world. Ships, trucks, and planes deliver that food. It is time we stopped ignoring the energy problem.
Until next week, this is John Block reporting from Washington, D.C. If you would like to review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go on-line to www.johnblockreports.com.
