There was lots of speculation during the presidential campaign about the advisers or handlers behind President Joe Biden’s campaign. Whoever they were—and are—their ducks were in a row on Inauguration Day. Of the 15 executive orders already printed up and bound in hard cover, several definitely made life harder for the livestock industry.
Among Biden’s first acts were energy attacks that would eventually make running a ranch or farm more expensive; will make inputs more expensive; will make trucking more expensive; and further, will take more money out of the pockets of consumers, hurting demand for beef. The oil and gas industry involves 10 million jobs. With high gasoline prices in the past, higher cost tank fill-ups were linked to consumers shifting from casual dining and steakhouses to fast food because their jeans lacked jingle.
The only possible benefit could be to ranchers with gas and oil leases on their property, because with the administration delaying—and reviewing to consider stopping—leasing and permitting on federal lands, the prices for leases on private land could increase long term.
The biggest short-term effects will come from halting the Keystone XL pipeline construction. Some 11,000 direct jobs and some 60,000 related jobs means less demand for beef and damage to local economies along the pipeline route. Less construction activity means short-term less government revenue and less money to rural school districts. The ending of potential gas or oil through the pipeline continue the revenue effects on rural communities and ranch land.
The environmentalists cheer because they contend carrying oil to the Gulf means oil going to foreign countries. Actually, the Gulf area has over half of the U.S. refinery capacity and supplies the central and eastern U.S. with gas, gasoline, industrial chemicals and heating fuel.
In fact, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich characterized the Chinese as likely “thrilled” with the president’s actions because it makes more likely the finishing of Canada’s pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific and that oil will go to foreign countries. China imports 75 percent of their oil.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said Vladimir Putin must be “ecstatic.” After all, Russia, Iran and the other nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries desperately need higher oil prices to boost their economies, and Biden is helping them.
Immigration could be a ticking time bomb on the Southern border, which has been experiencing quieter times in recent years. Border ranchers and communities could be in for a tumultuous spring and summer. Farmers, ranchers, construction, landscapers and packers could see more potential workers, but it will be harder to sort out the legal workers from increasing illegal numbers.
The Trump administration had been enforcing a rule that asylum seekers have to apply at the first country entered, instead of traipsing through several and applying at the U.S. border. Biden is also expected to end the Remain in Mexico program, which required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while waiting for their U.S. case to come up, instead of being released in the U.S. and usually, disappearing. He’s also expected to raise the refugee cap to 125,000 from the current 15,000. A Texas judge did recently block a Biden-ordered pause on deportations.
There are some different political implications of a divided Senate and narrow Democrat House margins. Two Democrat senators said they would not vote for impeachment of former President Donald Trump, making that unconstitutional charade unlikely to go anywhere beyond camp drama. Negotiations so far have not been announced regarding ending the Senate filibuster but it appears likely to be delayed, as some Democrats are not inclined to vote for that either. Biden did Republicans in the House a favor by stealing several Democrat House members for cabinet posts, further narrowing the Democrat margin.
We’re not sure it was on many radar screens, but Biden also made the animal welfare activists happier and made life more difficult for the packers. Government regulators had been allowing waivers to poultry plants who wanted to run at a line speed of 175 birds/minute instead of 140 birds/minute. The Trump administration had allowed those waivers to continue. But Biden with his early flurry of executive orders withdrew a Trump administration request to extend to all poultry plants the same waiver beyond the 54 already operating that way.
The animal welfare activists praised Biden because modern processing allows more chickens to be raised and processed and they view that as bad. They also view processing lines with hundreds of workers as bad news because of the nature of the work. — Steve Dittmer, WLJ columnist
(Steve Dittmer is the author of the Agribusiness Freedom Foundation newsletter. Views in the column do not necessarily represent the views or opinions ofWLJ or its editorial staff.)
