Dedicated energy crops

Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate this week would entice farmers located near ethanol biorefineries to grow dedicated energy crops.

This bill would offer incentives to farmers who plant switchgrass, fast-growing trees and other cellulosic feedstocks and deliver them to the nation's next generation of ethanol plants. Cellulose is the woody material in branches and stems that makes plants hard.

Breaking cellulose into sugar to spin straw into ethanol has been studied for at least 50 years. But the technological hurdles and costs have been so daunting that most ethanol producers instead relied on heavy government subsidies to squeeze fuel from corn.

In February, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded $385 million in grants over four years to six companies hoping to build the nation's first large-scale cellulosic ethanol plants. Earlier this month, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced plans to invest an additional $200 million over five years to help companies develop smaller biorefineries.

Under the bill introduced Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would determine the likelihood of construction of a future biorefinery, the local potential for feedstock production, the number of interested farmers and a biorefinery's economic impact.

Once a project is approved, farmers could enroll eligible land in the program. The bill would also authorize matching payments, capped at $45 per ton, to farmers anywhere in the U.S. who sell crop byproducts and residues such as corn stover and wheat straw to ethanol plants.