In visit to Midwest, Biden boosts biofuels, rural utility projects

President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced more than $5 billion in renewable energy, land conservation and rural broadband and utility projects, including more than $400 million for projects in Iowa.

"When rural America does well, when Indian country does well, we all do well," Biden said, speaking in a machine shed next to a green tractor and in front of a large American flag in rural Northfield, Minn.

Biden and senior administration officials plan to “barnstorm” rural America over the next two weeks to tout how federal investments championed by the White House — through the bipartisan infrastructure law signed in 2021 and last year’s Inflation Reduction Act — are helping rural areas and farmers.

For example, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough plans visit the Iowa City VA Medical Center Thursday to discuss access to medical care for veterans in rural areas. McDonough will visit both VA and community facilities, according to a media advisory.

The administration officials will be pointing out that federal spending has generated new revenue streams for farmers, boosted rural economic development and conservation practices, lowered energy costs and created new job opportunities for rural families.

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The president said Wednesday that factories have been shut down in rural America, towns have been hollowed out and jobs were moved overseas.

"Over the past few decades, these communities lost more than jobs," Biden said. "They lost their sense of dignity, opportunity, pride. My plan is about investing in rural America. It's about something else as well. It's about restoring pride and the road to rural communities that have been left behind for far too long."

Biden's visit to Minnesota comes after Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips announced a longshot primary challenge against the president last week.

On the first full day of his campaign, Phillips, 54, told reporters that former President Donald Trump is "a disaster for our country," and pointedly shared his view that "the polling indicates that President Biden will not win the next election.“

Rural help

The goal of the federal assistance is to show that Americans in rural communities do not have to move away in search of economic opportunity, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, told reporters during a White House media briefing call Tuesday ahead of Biden’s visit.

“And I think it’s reflective of President Biden’s belief that ZIP code ought not to determine your economic future,” Vilsack said.

The $5 billion in investments Biden announced — money already appropriated — includes nearly $1.7 billion for farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to participate in voluntary conservation programs and adopt environmentally-friendly agricultural practices, including growing crops that naturally sequester carbon and improve soil quality, and creating buffers to protect nearby waterways from pollutants.

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Vilsack said the $1.7 billion doubles what was spent on the same types of programs in the most recent fiscal year and will “create new income opportunities for thousands of small- and mid-sized farming operations as they sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Another $1.1 billion will go to upgrade infrastructure in rural communities to provide clean drinking water and reliable energy, and expand access to higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel.

The Iowa-specific investments include:

“This is an example of the president rebuilding the middle-class in rural America, from the bottom up and the middle out,” Vilsack said.

Vilsack told reporters that Minnesota was chosen to kick off the administration’s rural spending push because of the efforts already underway there.

“Minnesota was one of the first states to embrace a clean-water initiative, for example,” Vilsack said. “And so I think there's an opportunity there to highlight the work of Minnesota. I think it's also fair to say that Minnesota understands and appreciates that the future is in biofuels and the need for us to continue to look for ways to expand the utilization and access to higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel.”

Biden’s trip also comes amid a backdrop of Republican presidential candidates crisscrossing Iowa and blanketing it and other early nominating states with large rural populations in campaign ads slamming Biden’s multitrillion-dollar agenda as making inflation worse by flooding the economy with government spending — straining family budgets at the grocery aisle — and that his clean energy policies are to blame for high gas prices.

Pertinent to farmers and ranchers, Congress missed a September deadline to reauthorize the highly influential farm bill.

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"I appreciate that he's recognizing that rural America needs help with funding to either create or maintain revenue streams or livelihood," said Dan Glessing, a Waverly, Minn., farmer and president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau. "We need options."

He called for greater attention to shoring up trade disputes, particularly over Canada's quotas on U.S. dairy products and with Mexico over genetically modified corn. He also wants to see the nation's temporary agricultural visa program improved, noting many farms rely on foreign workers for labor.

"We need to separate the guest-worker program from the border issue," Glessing said. "The H2A workers are coming from all over."

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune contributed to this report.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com

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