With the Senate narrowly passing President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” farmers in Eastern Washington are anxiously anticipating what could become a costly policy shift.
“It’s just absolutely the wrong policy for this country,” said David Funk, founder of Zero Emissions Northwest.
Funk said the bill that has headed back to the House for concurrence could increase electricity costs by 10-15%, or an average of 5 cents per kilowatt-hour statewide by 2030. It’s a change he says could significantly impact the agriculture industry, other business and residential energy users.
“There’s not a single thing in this bill about energy that is a good part for where the future is going,” Funk said.
He said that’s because energy ranks among the top five costs for farmers, and with farm profit margins already squeezed by inflation, tariffs and labor costs, this would only add more negative impacts.
Funk said his organization is currently working with more than 100 farmers across Washington state. He said many of them have leased land for wind turbine projects that may now be canceled.
“Lots of rural areas see energy development; you can’t build a wind farm in downtown Spokane, so you look for rural areas and projects that are no longer financially viable. Farmers have signed leases and option agreements, and that diversifies their income,” Funk said.
“... So removing these incentives will increase energy costs. Farmers pay for electricity, just like you and I, sometimes even more, because it’s very expensive to pump a lot of water and then losing out on revenue opportunities in the clean energy future,” he said.
Alicia Zeiler, who runs a farm with her husband and parents, echoed Funk’s concerns. She said that as a farm operator, it’s vital to continue building energy infrastructure, whether it’s green energy or not.
Zeiler said their two farming operations are Zeiler Ranch in Odessa and GMC Joint Venture in Harrington, with GMC Joint Venture currently involved in the Wheatland Wind Project. It’s a proposed wind farm in Spokane and Lincoln counties aimed at diversifying income and benefiting owner-operators like her family, who leased their land for the wind project.
“We’re just going to keep having demand,” Zeiler said. “And it’ll be a while before I think our big tractors are electric, but we’re already looking toward that, like, ‘How can we, on the farm, do what we can and get things electric?’ That’s not going to be possible if some of our infrastructure and prices are high.”
The goal is to keep farmers in business so that future generations, like her 8-month-old daughter, can continue the tradition.
“I’m more worried than before that the bill will get finalized and will impact us and our community negatively,” Zeiler said.
Funk said he was able to sit down with Rep. Michael Baumgartner and Sen. Patty Murray’s teams last week to address his concerns, both of which, he said, are “receptive to these impacts to our farmers.”
A statement from Murray says passing this bill will “put dozens of clean energy projects in Eastern and Central Washington at risk and will raise energy costs for farmers and undermine their ability to expand their businesses and invest in their communities.”
“Even Elon Musk understands the plain facts of the matter – that Republicans’ cuts to clean energy tax credits are ‘utterly insane and destructive’ and will ‘destroy millions of jobs in America,’” she continues.
However, Baumgartner argues that isn’t accurate and “hasn’t heard that from any actual farmers.”
“The One Big, Beautiful Bill is great for farmers, and that’s why it’s endorsed by the Farm Bureau. It gives much needed certainty on taxes on family farms,” Baumgartner said.
“I just spoke to the chair of the House Agricultural Committee, GT Thompson, and he noted that more than half of all the great stuff for farmers that would be typically in the Farm Bill is actually already going to be in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, so it’ll be a huge win for agriculture in eastern Washington,” he continued.
Funk said if the bill is signed into law, it will have shockwaves for farmers and rural consumers across the country.
“We are ruining America’s competitiveness globally with this,” he said.