Here’s an unofficial synopsis of the biofuels provisions in the Senate and House Farm Bills (put together by a colleague).  There are no really good synopses of the energy titles in the bills and comparisons (the Senate bill was just passed on Friday). There hasn’t been word yet on conferees on when the conference to reconcile the bills will take place.

Senate Farm Bill - Food and Energy Security Act of 2007

The energy package includes $1.1 billion to encourage farmers to grow biomass crops, in financial aid to construct ethanol plants using cellulose, found in grasses and wood, as a feedstock, and to help refiners buy biofuel feedstocks.

An additional $1.1 billion would be expended in tax credits for biofuels, including credits for cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulosic ethanol would be eligible for up to $1.28 a gallon in credits. The bill has a credit to small producer of 67 cents for cellulosic ethanol, the current 10-cent credit available to all small producers and the long-standing 51-cent tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline.

The energy title provides investments in farm-based energy by creating initiatives with financial incentives to help farmers transition into biomass crops, and supports the construction of biorefineries for cellulose ethanol with a loan guarantee program that will provide up to 80 percent of total project cost with a loan cap of $250 million.

The bill expands markets for biobased products, and invests in farm-based energy R&D, and in helping farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses move to renewable energy and energy efficiency.

House Farm Bill - H.R. 2419 - The Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007

(source of synopsis — Farm Energy Online)

·        The program would help finance the cost of developing and constructing biorefineries and biofuel production plants. Mandatory funding of $800 million for fiscal years 2008-2012

·        Reauthorizes the 2002 Farm Bill’s Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development program through 2012. Does not fund it.

• Program authorizes loans, loan guarantees, and grants to farmers, ranchers, and rural small businesses to purchase and install renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. Provides $500 million in mandatory funding for fiscal years 2008-2012
• The program provides competitive funding for research and development projects on biofuels and bio-based chemicals and products, administered jointly by the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy.

Creates a new federal Biomass Research and Development Board, and a Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee.

Establishes a new Biomass Research and Development Initiative to focus work on competitively-priced biofuels, high-value biobased products, and the production of new biomass resources.

Provides mandatory funding of $420 million over five years. Also provides an additional $200 million in annual discretionary funding, subject to appropriations.

• Reauthorizes and expands the Bioenergy Program, which authorizes payments to eligible bioenergy producers based on any year-to-year increase in the quantity of bioenergy that they produce.

Encourages production of ethanol and biodiesel made from agricultural and forestry crops and associated waste materials, including animal manure and livestock/food processing waste.

Expands eligibility for combined heat and power production using biomass at biofuels plants, renewable diesel and biomass gasification as eligible types of bioenergy.

Provides $1.4 billion in mandatory funding for fiscal years 2008-2012.

• Establishes a program to encourage the sustainable production of feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol and other energy production and provides for 5 year contracts for producers to grow dedicated energy crops.

Provides for an incentive for producers to harvest, store, and transport biomass to bioenergy facilities. 

Offers an incentive to help farmers learn how to plant, cultivate, harvest and transport these feedstocks in a cost-effective manner.

Mandatory funding as necessary to implement program

A key departure from current farm-bill related energy provisions is that most new funding would be directed away from corn-starch-based ethanol production and towards either cellulosic-based biofuels production or to new as-yet-undeveloped technologies with some type of agricultural linkage.

Sugar Provisions -

The USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation will purchase surplus sugar and sell it to bioenergy producers. Here’s what the Sweetener Users says: “Both bills guarantee U.S. sugar growers an 85% share of the domestic sugar market. To the extent that imports threaten the 85% share reserved for growers, taxpayers will be required to absorb the cost of removing surplus sugar from the market and diverting it into ethanol production. The cost of doing so is estimated to be $4 to 5 billion over ten years. This special treatment for sugar has no equal among the price support programs for other agricultural commodities, and it makes a mockery of any claim that the sugar program is operated on a no-net-cost basis.”