Biomass Crop Assistance Program Announces Enrollment Period in New Project Areas

On June 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) announced the designation of four new project areas for the establishment of new miscanthus biomass energy crops. The project areas are located in Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; each area will have a designated biomass energy conversion facility that will purchase designated energy crops from producers in the surrounding counties. Beginning June 20, biomass producers in each of the project areas may now enroll eligible acreage in the program. Producers in these project areas will grow giant miscanthus, “a sterile hybrid warm-season grass that can be converted into energy to be used for heat, power, liquid biofuels, and bio-based products.” The BCAP program will subsidize the cost of establishing and producing the new energy crop. The USDA seeks to enroll from 3,000 to 5,000 acres in each of the project areas.

BCAP is a critical element in the nation’s strategy to reduce its dependence on petroleum and other fossil fuels. It is designed to address the “chicken or the egg” dilemma in which biomass producers will not plant energy crops if there is no biomass conversion facility to buy the crop, but no one will build a biomass conversion facility unless there is a sufficient local supply of biomass. The program addresses this by matching biomass and bioenergy producers in promising project areas and by providing critical financial assistance to biomass producers to establish and develop new crops.

By substituting low-carbon, renewable biofuels and bio-based products for petroleum-based fuels and products, the program can help increase rural employment, reduce the trade deficit, increase energy security, and dramatically reduce the carbon intensity of transportation fuels. Unfortunately, just as BCAP is getting started under its new implementation rules, the House has voted to eliminate all funding for the program next year.