Energy

May 19, 2022

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 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 a severe risk of a world food shortage. Solving this
problem is not going to be helped by the skyrocketing 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 burns 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.

If you would like to review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go online to www.johnblockreports.com.