Don Jenkins

The Washington Department of Ecology sold carbon-emissions allowances for $70.86 apiece as the state’s cap-and-trade tax on fossil fuels reached a new high. Fuel producers, fuel distributors and investors snapped up more than 7.4 million allowances at the record price, Ecology announced Dec. 10. Ecology held the auction the week before. The price surpassed the previous record of $64.30, set in September. If fuel producers pass on the cost of acquiring allowances, the tax will add 56 cents per gallon to gasoline and 70 cents per gallon to diesel.

Washington farms would face stiff fines for not notifying illegal aliens they are being investigated by federal immigration agents under legislation proposed by state Attorney General Nick Brown. At Brown’s request, House and Senate Democrats introduced Dec. 8 the Immigrant Worker Protection Act. The bill also would bar employers from allowing immigration officials to inspect payroll records without a court order. The U.S. Attorney’s Office lists Washington as a sanctuary state with laws that impede enforcement of immigration laws. House Bill 2105 and the identical Senate Bill 5852 would put new requirements on employers to alert illegal immigrants to "I-9 audits." I-9 refers to the form employees sign attesting they are authorized to work in the U.S. Lying on the form is a federal crime.

The USDA will distribute $11 billion to growers of 20 crops by the end of February to offset expected 2025 losses, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said. The USDA plans to later distribute $1 billion to farmers of specialty crops such as apples, cherries, hops and pears. The agency needs more time to study economic losses for those crops, Rollins said Dec. 8 at a White House event. Although checks won’t be distributed until the end of February, growers should know by the end of the month how much they will receive, she said. “So as you go to your lender … you will have that number in hand,” she said. The Trump administration has talked for several months about providing aid to farmers, particularly to soybean growers temporarily shut out of China. China has resumed buying U.S. soybeans, the White House recast the aid as a “bridge” to better times for agriculture.

If the Northwest has a long cold snap, it may not have enough electricity, a consultant hired by utilities said. Up to now, the region has had enough power to meet extraordinary demand. But the surplus is expected to turn into a deficit in 2026, E3 senior partner Arne Olson told the Washington Senate Environment, Energy and Technology Committee on Dec. 5. Power plants that provide “firm” electricity, such as coal plants, are being shut down. Almost all new power plants are intermittent wind and solar installations. Windmills and solar panels make only a small contribution to grid reliability in cold snaps, according to Olson. Batteries typically supply power for only four hours, he said.“If you have an event that lasts three or four days, the four hours is really not that helpful,” Olson said.

Gov. Bob Ferguson will permit a Swedish investment firm to build a solar and battery installation on about 2,000 acres of farmland in south-central Washington, despite opposition from the Yakama Nation. The Carriger solar project will provide jobs and clean energy, Ferguson said Dec. 4. Cypress Creek Renewables, owned by Stockholm-based EQT Infrastructure, plans to install solar panels and batteries about 2 miles northeast of Goldendale in Klickitat County.T he installation will mar the landscape and disrupt tribal members’ use of the area, according to the Yakama Nation.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing whether to gain set deadlines for the Environmental Protection Agency to decide whether certain pesticides are safe. Labor and environmental groups asked the court to order the EPA to rule on a petition filed in 2021 seeking to ban 13 organophosate pesticides.EPA attorney Laura Glickman told a three-judge panel Dec. 2 in San Francisco the agency planned to decide on seven pesticides next year and the rest in four or five years. No doubt, it’s complicated, but the EPA can’t just study indefinitely, Judge Ryan Nelson said. "At some point, you have to pull the trigger, and you’re not giving us a plan of when you’re going to do that,” he said.

The U.S. is reviewing its trade agreement with Mexico and Canada and some farm groups are asking for protectionist measures. Many U.S. agricultural interests praise the agreement for eliminating tariffs and promoting cross-border trade. Some growers, however, say low-priced crops, especially from Mexico, are driving down prices. For example, in comments submitted recently to U.S. trade officials, Oregon and Idaho onion growers proposed duties on Mexican onions.“ Let’s set the record straight — rules and regulations in America have caused an uneven playing field with Mexico, thus allowing their growers to undercut our farmers,” Idaho Onion Growers’ Association executive director Patxi Larrocea-Phillips wrote.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes repealing four Biden-era Endangered Species Act regulations and reverting to rules adopted during President Trump’s first term. The American Farm Bureau and National Cattlemen's Beef Association sued this year to overturn the Biden rules, claiming the regulations threatened livelihoods. Repealing the Biden rules will end the overreach, Trump officials said. “These actions reaffirm our commitment to science-based conservation that works hand in hand with America’s energy, agriculture and infrastructure priorities,” Fish and Wildlife director Brian Nesvik said in a statement Nov. 19. The rules guide how Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service list and delist species.  They also guide identifying habitat critical to conserve a species.

President Trump said he expects retail food prices to fall after he reduced tariffs on some foreign agricultural products, including beef and coffee. The White House released a list Nov. 14 of farm goods no longer subject to 10% reciprocal tariffs levied on trading partners. The tariff rollback went into effect immediately. The list includes tropical fruits, tomatoes, avocados, spices and some types of fertilizers. While in place, the reciprocal tariffs leveraged trade deals favorable to farmers, including one that commits China to resume buying U.S. soybeans, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said. “When America negotiates from strength, we can lift tariffs on products that don’t compete with U.S. farmers because we’re finally getting fair deals in return,” she said on X.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission rejected a request to donate 15 wolves to Colorado, with some commissioners saying it would be strange to give away a state endangered species. The commission dismissed the plea from Colorado Parks and Wildlife in an 8-1 vote Nov. 15 at a meeting in Lynwood, Wash. The trip from Washington to Colorado would be hard on wolves, some commissioners said. It also would contradict the commission’s decision last year to keep wolves on the state endangered species list, even though Fish and Wildlife biologists said the state's wolves were no longer endangered.“It would be odd to keep the wolves listed and then to take them out of the state," Commission Chairman Jim Anderson said.