Biomass Crop Assistance Program

From the January 2011 Forest2Mill newsletter.

On December 15, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released all the documents necessary to kick off the implementation of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program. Biomass conversion facilities can now apply for qualifying status. As of December 30, only one facility had been qualified—a facility in Iowa run by Poet that converts corn cobs into cellulosic ethanol. This number is likely to increase quickly in the new year.

Suppliers for many wood products and pulp and paper cogeneration facilities will no longer qualify for matching payments. Under the new rules, all wood fuel not separated from higher value products at the harvest site are now ineligible, as are materials for which there is already a market—most mill residues, for instance. 

Landowners, loggers and dealers who own or harvest wood fuel from timberland with a forest management and harvesting plan will continue to be eligible for matching payments, however, if they deliver qualified material to a qualified facility.

As implementation of the program hits full stride in 2011, there are a couple of issues that could present obstacles. First, is the methodology the USDA will use to determine if a market for a specific type of material in a specific wood basin exists. To date, the agency has not released information detailing how this determination will be made. Regardless of how these decisions are made, however, there are likely to be significant disagreements about the findings.

A more serious obstacle could be the 112th Congress. The Omnibus Spending Bill that was before Congress in the lame duck session of the 111th Congress, contained a provision that essentially defunded the bill.

According to an article by Anna Austin in Biomass Power and Thermal:

Fortunately, House Majority Leader Harry Reid could not find enough support for the Omnibus Spending Bill and decided not to bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate. Instead, the Congress passed a temporary spending bill to keep the government running another 10 weeks—until the beginning of March. After the holiday recess, the 112th Congress will take up a new version of the bill. Whether BCAP will fare any better in that version of the bill is anyone's guess. Many in the freshman class of Congress were elected to deal with budget issues, however, so the legislators are likely to be much more serious about cutting spending.

Kimmerer suggests that those concerned about BCAP funding contact their legislators. Again, from Biomass Power and Thermal: “Cuts to other farm bill programs are minimal, Kimmerer pointed out. ‘So somebody was targeting the biomass industry,’ he said. ‘Though the omnibus is not in final form, people concerned about BCAP need to contact their legislators.’”

Find and contact your legislators by using the "Find your Lawmakers" function in the upper right hand corner at www.congress.org.