Farm advocates hopeful over Biden’s infrastructure plan

President Joe Biden’s plan to spend billions for better roads, safer bridges and modernized locks and dams on waterways will aid rural areas and the agriculture sector, but some groups say his broad definition of infrastructure and his proposed tax increases are problematic.

Johnathan Hladik, policy director for the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska, said he is heartened by the $115 billion the plan says is needed to “repair the worst 10,000 smaller bridges, including bridges that provide critical connections to rural and tribal communities.”

Hladik said large-scale farming means heavy equipment is needed for harvesting and the routes to fields frequently mean crossing bridges “in very, very poor condition” built decades ago for smaller vehicles. Navigating those bridges can be tricky.

“When you’re growing corn, you need to bring your semi and your trailer to that field to haul the corn back away,” he said. “Well, if you can’t get to that field because all of the bridges are out or all of these bridges are so antiquated that they are not designed to hold the weight that you have with your machine, you can’t do your job.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2021 report card gives U.S. roads, bridges, rails, waterways, public parks and other infrastructure an overall grade of C-. The grade was an improvement from D+ in the last report card issued in 2017.

The report says 43% of U.S. roads, mostly non-interstate streets in rural and urban areas, are in a poor or mediocre state while 42% of bridges are at least 50 years old and 7.5% of them are structurally unsound. The report card estimates there is a combined $786 billion backlog of road and bridge repairs. The report also estimates there is a $6.8 billion backlog in construction of aging locks.

Hladik also sees promise for rural areas with Biden’s proposed $100 billion for access to broadband service, which is increasingly viewed in agriculture and rural development to be as essential as access to electricity. He said broadband and the growing use of technology in agriculture could lead to good-paying, high-tech jobs in small towns and communities.

He wonders if other parts of the $2 trillion proposed plan will “distract from the other tangible brick and mortar problems we have. I don’t know. That’s a fair question.”

The Biden plan proposes $621 billion over eight years for transportation-related infrastructure, including $80 billion for passenger and freight rail; $17 billion for inland waterways, coastal ports, land ports of entry, and ferries; $85 billion for modernizing existing public transit; and $25 billion for projects of regional or national importance.

The plan is drawing Republican opposition as a tax-and-spend package for its cost and for proposing that the corporate income tax rate rise to 28% from 21% and that the minimum tax rate paid by U.S. multinationals rise to 21% from 10.5%.

Growth Energy, an ethanol industry trade group, said it’s disappointed the plan proposes a limited role for biofuels in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A boost for cornbased ethanol would add to the bottom line for corn farmers. The plan includes $174 billion in incentives for consumers to buy electric vehicles, aid to state and local governments to build a network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030, moving the federal vehicle fleet to electric powered replacements and electrifying at least 20% of the nation’s school buses.

Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor said the administration also should view ethanol as tool for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from internal combustion engines that will likely be on the road for years as the U.S. works to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.