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Panel: U.S. infrastructure in need of repairs poses transportation threat for agriculture
 


By JIM RUTLEDGE
D.C. Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of agricultural and food transportation experts are urging members of Congress to immediately address the nation’s crumbling transportation infrastructure, which they point to as jeopardizing the farm industry’s Adelivery of food.
The lack of new and expanded federal funding to repair aging roadways and bridges and congested railroads and river bottlenecks was the subject of the Farm Foundation’s Nov. 19, forum “Transportation Challenges in Agriculture.” Members of the panel included Eric Jessup, a vice president of transportation issues for the international consulting firm Informa Economics; John H. Miller, group vice president for Agricultural Products for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad; Jon Samson, executive director of the Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference of the American Truckers Assoc.; and Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition.
Mark Scholl, president of J & M Scholl, a family agriculture holding company, and farmer, served as the panel’s moderator.
A federal fuel tax of l8.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 for diesel funds the nation’s transportation projects. While Congress debates the issue, Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) are calling for a bump at the pump, increasing the fuel tax by 12 cents per gallon.
According to AAA, 52 percent of the American driving public is willing to pay higher fuel taxes for better roads, bridges and expand the mass transit systems. “Americans are fed up with record long commutes, unsafe highways and never-ending potholes,” AAA stated.
Addressing the critical issue of federal funding to maintain and restore the nation’s transportation infrastructure, Steenhoek proposed a plan to “immediately decrease the fuel tax by 1 cent, and immediately index the fuel tax tied to inflation.”  While the move would not increase spending immediately, over the next 10 years he said the plan would add nearly $7 billion annually to the Highway Trust Fund. Federal fuel tax revenue now generates approximately $34.35 billion a year.
Concerned about getting crops to the market faster, Steenhoek called for new funding to expand barge traffic on the country’s inland waterway system, tax dollars needed to expand shipping ports and construct new river locks and dams, he explained.
“The United States is a spending nation,” Steenhoek said, “not an investing nation.” Congress, he said, needs to invest in infrastructure. “Congress doesn’t want to be accused of raising taxes on hard-working Americans. There is no political will.”
Record harvest of corn and soybeans are expected to hit combined nearly 18 billion bushels by the end of the year, according to the USDA.
Jessup, who specializes in transportation issues, cited the dramatic need in highway funding to repair 32 percent of the nation’s roads in poor or mediocre condition, and ease congestion on 42 percent of urban highways. Using statistics from the American Society of Civil Engineers, he said it will cost $101 billion to maintain the nation’s roads and cost more than  $170 billion annually to improve them. Without new federal funding this money is not available.
It would cost $76 billion to repair or replace 1 in 9 of the country’s bridges, Jessup added, and replace 25 percent of other bridges that are “functionally obsolete.”
Since l980, the railroad industry has spent $575 billion to keep pace with demands on 140,000 miles of rail traffic, but what the industry now needs, according to Miller, is for Congress to address regulatory reforms. Citing the need to expand rail service, he said legislative changes should eliminate bureaucratic delays in issuing a wide range of permits, and improve and speed up rulemaking. Reform, he said, will meet the needs to operate an efficient freight rail system.
Railroad freight cars are carrying more truck containers and trailers annually, Miller said, rushing farm products and animals to market. Nearly 120,000 containers and trailers alone carry tens of thousands of bushels of grain.
In the past 10 years, the American Assoc. of Railroads said the industry has spent more than $250 billion to maintain and expand its infrastructure. In the Midwest Chicago market, railroads have more than doubled the infrastructure changes to move farm products faster.
Critical to meeting the growth of truck transportation market to market, Samson said one federal law that governs truckers delays various products due to “hours of service” rules. These rules, he said, require certain rest periods for truckers and are having an effect on livestock deliveries, especially during weather changes.
Trucks stopped for rest periods, he says, are harmful to hogs, cattle, sheep and chickens. These trucks need to be traveling all the time, he said, to allow airflow through the special grated trailers designed to keep the animals cool on the road. Stopping to rest, he said, is harmful to the animals during high-weather temperatures.
Among other changes needed, he said, are solutions to address driver shortages and low pay: new hiring rules, and special provisions to help transiting veterans from military service fill the tens of thousands of job openings for truckers and transportation operators.
An audio recording of the two-hour meeting is available in MP3 format on the Farm Foundation’s website, at www.farm foundation.org/forum
11/26/2014