Wheat Growers Now Oppose Cap-and-Trade Bill

I grew up in Enid, Okla., a community once known as the Wheat Capital of the World, so I appreciate Sen. James Inhofe’s excitement upon learning that the board of the National Wheat Growers Association had shifted its position and now opposes “Cap and Trade” (i.e., the Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill).

“I’m pleased that the organization representing the interests of wheat growers nationwide has reached the right conclusion,” said Senator Inhofe, a Republican and the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “Cap-and-trade legislation and potential EPA greenhouse gas regulation pose serious harm to farmers and rural America.

“In times of great hardship in rural communities across America, both of these approaches to addressing climate change will only bring further job cuts and economic decline. This new resolution marks an important step in the effort to defeat a cap-and-trade energy tax and EPA’s misguided regulations.”

Senator Inhofe applauded the NGWA board for its near-unanimous (26-2) vote Sept. 4 that approved a new resolution on climate legislation and regulation. That resolution puts the group on record as “opposed to greenhouse gas legislation or regulation that has a negative impact on production agriculture.”

The new resolution marks a stunning shift from the group’s recent endorsement of the Waxman-Markey legislation passed by the House of Representatives in June. As the Oklahoma Farm Report noted today, the Wheat Growers Association firmly stated that, “neither greenhouse gas regulation nor legislation should take effect until the major carbon emitting countries of the world have agreed to regulation their own greenhouse gases in a like manner to ours.” And it will “oppose EPA regulation and will work to overturn the Supreme Court ruling.”

The board also voted 24 to 0 to “remove existing resolutions relating to greenhouse gas regulation and an agriculture cap-and-trade program.”

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