USDA Finalizing Rules for Biomass Crop Assistance Program

Biofuels
USDA Finalizes Rules for Biomass Crop Assistance Program
Submitted by eBoom Staff on October 21, 2010
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) laid out its final rule provisions for the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) outlining detailed qualifications for the aggressive incentives for biomass crop and energy producers.
BCAP, was created as part part of the 2008 Farm Bill to help US farmers and bioenergy producers meet the federal Renewable Fuels Standard, requiring 36 billion gallons of advanced biofuel in the national fuel supply by 2022.
The press release summarized the rules:
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Crop producers and bioenergy producers will be able to team together to submit applications to USDA to be selected as a BCAP project area.
If selected, crop producers will be eligible for reimbursements of up to 75 percent of the cost of establishing a bioenergy perennial crop. Producers also can receive up to 5 years of annual payments for grassy crops (annual or perennial), and up to 15 years of annual payments for woody crops (annual or perennial).
Assistance for the collection, harvest, storage and transportation of biomass to biomass conversion facilities will be available for 2 years, per producer, in the form of a matching payment for up to $45 per ton of the delivery cost to the facility.
The total expenditures expected over the next 15 years is USD$461 million in matching payments. Farmers and bioenergy producers like POET have been anxiously waiting for the finalized provisions.
In a response to the final USDA rule Jim Sturdevant, Director of Project LIBERTY for POET, said, "The 85 farmers we have contracted with to deliver 56,000 tons of biomass this fall are nearly finished harvesting, so the final BCAP rule comes not a day too soon. We will now apply for our cellulosic ethanol plant to become an approved Biomass Conversion Facility (BCF) so that local farmers can become eligible for matching payments for the biomass they will soon deliver."
Image Credit: poetpics via Flickr
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