Energy & Agriculture: Beyond Corn

For my first post, I wanted to introduce myself. I am Josh Fershee, and I am a professor at the University of North Dakota School of Law, where I teach Energy Law and Policy, Business Associations I and II, and Labor and Employment Law. My research areas include all of my teaching areas, but have primarily focused on energy law, climate change, and renewable energy issues. And, as has become quite clear, U.S. policies for energy law and agricultural law have never been more intertwined.

The obvious overlap comes with corn and other crops used for ethanol. But energy law and agricultural law overlap on far more just ethanol policy. Various state renewable portfolio standards (and proposed federal programs) include biomass as one of the approved generation sources. And, according to the Union of Concern Scientists: “Tripling U.S. use of biomass for energy could provide as much as $20 billion in new income for farmers and rural communities and reduce global warming emissions by the same amount as taking 70 million cars off the road.” That’s no small potatoes.

Similarly, as wind energy gains momentum, many farmers are looking at wind as another cash “crop.” Wind energy supplies only about 1% of all power in the United States, but the potential is staggering. North Dakota (in theory) alone could supply about one quarter of all U.S. demand. (Getting that power to consumers would be an entirely different issue). And with the price of wind energy production dropping about 80% in the past two decades, the trend is likely to continue for a while.

Thank you for having me, and I look forward to your comments and input as I explore the intersection between energy law and agricultural law.