Source: High Plains Journal

As any farmer could explain, running a farm or ranch is an expensive endeavor.

Fluctuating commodity prices, raising livestock, irrigation costs, fueling and maintaining equipment, building new facilities, hiring and training employees and buying the fertilizer, pesticides and seeds needed to grow and harvest crops top the list.

And as federal statistics point out, so do the steep costs of energy. The reality for farmers and ranchers is that the cost of energy is also built into every non-energy input expense.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the agriculture industry uses at least 800 trillion British thermal units of energy per year—about as much primary energy as the entire state of Utah. In all, energy-related costs regularly account for 30 percent or more farming expenses, studies show.

Direct energy costs for farmers include diesel fuel to run tractors, combines and the other implements needed for growing a crop. For farmers who rely heavily on irrigation, fuel and electricity—which run the pumps that move water into fields—are very substantial costs to consider. After harvest, farmers must account for the cost of propane or natural gas to dry the crop, electricity to refrigerate and process the crop, and the diesel costs to transport the crop to market. Farmers margins can be particularly squeezed if propane pipelines are down or if fuel demand is high during a particularly cold fall or winter.

Farmers also shoulder massive indirect energy costs through their purchase of other inputs. Natural gas, for instance, is the main ingredient used to make the fertilizer that keeps farm fields healthy. Thus, limited pipeline capacity can drive up the cost of natural gas, which in turn drives up the price of fertilizer. This further squeezes already razor-thin farm profit margins.

Fluctuating energy costs, much like the weather, can swiftly impact farm operations and have a dramatic impact on a farmer’s bottom line. When farmers face a lack of energy choices, there are few options available to help contain these costs.

Considering America’s 2.2 million farmers help bring fresh and wholesome food to our tabletops, it’s necessary that we ensure they have regular access to reliable, cost-effective energy. And thanks to America’s ongoing energy renaissance that’s more achievable than ever.

Once struggling in an increasingly globalized economy, many American agricultural communities have been revitalized in recent years by the fast-growing development of natural gas and the expansion of its accompanying pipeline infrastructure. Farmers near the Marcellus and Utica shales, for example, have benefited from leasing land for energy production, which has allowed them to reinvest in their farms and communities by buying new equipment, expanding their businesses and boosting their local economy.

In Colorado, many farmers have benefited from the oil and natural gas development in the Denver-Julesburg basin in the northeast part of the state. From the expansion of royalty payments and pipeline easements to the local availability of oil and natural gas, farmers and ranchers in Weld county have benefited from robust energy development.

But ongoing constraints on pipeline capacity have prevented countless other farmers from realizing the far-reaching, cost-saving benefits that American energy production has to offer—and building new, state-of-the-art pipelines, widely regarded as the safest way to transport oil and natural gas, is the only remedy to transport energy the long distances from where it’s produced to where it’s consumed.

Not every farmer and rancher has energy development taking place nearby. Expanding pipeline capacity would not only allow farmers to take advantage of affordable, reliable, American-made energy to help grow crops and expand rural development opportunities, but it would also help reduce electricity prices and volatility.

With conversations aimed at expanding pipelines, cutting local costs, increasing jobs, boosting local businesses and bringing reliable gas service into rural communities underway across the nation, it’s important that farmers and the agricultural industry play a pivotal role in each decision-making process. Not just noisy activists and industry representatives.

Farmers are, after all, among those directly impacted—and the ones who stand to share in this prosperity.