Environmentalists Call on Congress to Repower America with Clean Energy

Champaign, IL — Global warming could cost corn growers in Illinois $243 million a year, according to a new report by Environment Illinois. Illinois ranks second in the nation for projected corn losses due to global warming. Nationwide, the estimated damage to America’s #1 crop totals more than $1.4 billion annually. Environment Illinois projects these losses to occur unless the United States Congress takes decisive action to repower America with clean energy and reduce global warming pollution.

“Corn likes it cool, but global warming is raising temperatures in Illinois and across the nation,” said Environment Illinois field associate Christine Del Priore. “Hotter fields will mean lower yields for corn, and eventually, the rest of agriculture.”

Despite conventional wisdom that global warming is good for agriculture in the United States, scientists expect that temperature increases due to global warming will hurt corn production. In fact, research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Carnegie Institution shows that temperature changes consistent with global warming are already harming corn production worldwide relative to a world without global warming.

“The character of the Midwest is changing,” said Dr. Don Wuebbles, Nobel-Peace Prize winning member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  “We can say with confidence that climate change is human induced; the opportunity to protect the future and avoid the worst effects of global warming is before us.”

Fortunately, the very solutions to global warming pollution—ramping up efficiency and transitioning to clean, renewable energy—are some of the most job-creating and economy-boosting measures our country could take, pointed out Environment Illinois.

“With clean energy such as wind and solar, agriculture has a huge opportunity to be part of the solution to global warming,” said American Corn Growers Association President Keith Bolin.

Clean energy sources, including wind turbines and distributed generation such as on-site solar panels, can provide farmers an independent source of electricity or income while reducing global warming pollution. Wind developers, for example, are offering $4,000 to $8,000 a year per turbine to farmers that allow them to be installed on their land.

In today’s report, Hotter Fields, Lower Yields, Environment Illinois analyzed the expected future impacts of global warming on America’s corn growers. The analysis draws on a 2008 study by the United States Climate Change Science Program, a joint project of the United States Department of Agriculture and 12 other federal agencies. The report estimates the financial impact from global warming by pairing 1) government’s estimates of the relative loss in corn productivity in major U.S. corn-producing areas due to global warming, with 2) USDA data on the size of the corn industry.

The analysis considers the combined effect of increasing temperatures and increasing levels of carbon dioxide but assumes that crops get sufficient water and does not include other negative effects of global warming—such as more frequent extreme storms, higher levels of ozone, and the spreading of diseases, pests and weeds.

Later this week, the full U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on an historic bill to establish science-based caps on global warming pollution while laying the framework for a national transition to clean energy. The American Clean Energy and Security Act would require that the nation obtain 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, like wind and solar power, by 2020.

An analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that a national renewable electricity standard could generate up to $13.5 billion in new income for farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners.

“Big Oil, Dirty Coal, and other polluters are fighting to maintain the status quo, but now is the time for change,” said Del Priore, “We need to unleash the power of clean energy to rebuild our economy and solve global warming.”

“Renewable energy is not a choice, it’s crucial,” said Jody Nord of Bauer Power, a solar and wind company with offices in Springfield, Dunlap and Bloomington. “Renewables create new industries, they’re clean for the environment, and they limit our dependence on unstable fossil fuels.”

Environment Illinois urged Champaign’s Representative in Congress, Rep. Timothy Johnson, as well as the rest of Illinois’s congressional delegation to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act to fend off global warming’s worst impacts and speed the transition to a clean energy economy.

Click here to vew full report: Hotter Fields, Lower Yields: How Global Warming Could Hurt America’s Farms.

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