From E and E news

AGRICULTURE: Peterson rethinks his plans for biomass fuels research

Allison Winter, E&E Daily reporter

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) has
refined his approach to a key part of the farm bill's energy title
dealing with cellulosic ethanol.

Peterson wants to take his proposal to pay farmers for growing
grasses for energy crops a step further, encouraging such operations
to take place in geographical areas that could eventually host
cellulosic ethanol refineries, he said this week.

Since Peterson took the chairmanship of the agriculture panel, he
has flagged a program to pay farmers to plant switchgrass or other
biofuels crops as his chief interest in the next farm bill. The
proposal was fairly straightforward, and Peterson said it could help
transition biomass from its current smaller research phase to larger-
scale production.

But now Peterson wants to add in requirements to tie the acreage to
eventual plants. He said he is still considering several different
options.

"I've changed my thinking a little bit on how to go ahead with this,
but I am not totally clear," Peterson said in an interview earlier
this week. "Now as I look at this, now I think we have to be
focused."

Instead of just having the program pay farmers to plant large swaths
of lands with various grasses, Peterson would like to group those
operations in pilot programs. He would like the farms to be in a 50-
mile radius that could include an eventual plant to convert the
grasses to fuel.

"The more I look at it, the idea of growing switchgrass all over the
country is probably not the best idea," Peterson said.
He said he was inspired by a visit last weekend to the Chariton
Valley Biomass Project and talks with biofuels experts. The Chariton
Valley project in southern Iowa produces small amounts of fuel on an
experimental basis from switchgrass and other native southern Iowa
grasses.

A group of conservation organizations has been promoting an idea
similar to Peterson's. The environmentalists' plan, the "biofuels
innovation program," would enroll 200,000 to 250,000 acres together
in grass production, to place the acreage within 50 miles of a
plant. The close proximity to a plant is necessary because of the
high costs of transporting the grasses, which are heavy and bulky.
"Otherwise, it would not be economically viable," said Julie Sibbing
of the National Wildlife Federation. "And we are bound and
determined to try to enroll in areas where there is a reasonable
chance it could be used."

Proposals would not use CRP.

Conservation groups have also been concerned about Congress possibly
using the Conservation Reserve Program as a vehicle for growth of
energy crops, but Peterson and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have both indicated that is not the direction
they are headed in interviews over the past week.

"There is some reticence to move ahead too aggressively on CRP,"
Harkin said, adding that he believes in the program.
CRP, the farm bill's largest conservation program, pays farmers a
certain amount per acre to retire land that once grew crops into
environmentally beneficial grasslands. Some lawmakers have suggested
using those acres for cellulosic ethanol.

Peterson said this week that his energy proposal's per-acre payments
would be similar to CRP, but it would not be linked to that
program. "The rules of CRP do not allow us to do what we're going to
do," he said.

Wildlife and hunting groups say CRP has been enormously beneficial
for ducks, pheasants and other birds. They say those benefits could
be lost if the focus of the program turned to energy crops that
would have to be harvested every year.

Julie M. Sibbing
Senior Program Manager for Agriculture and Wetlands Policy
National Wildlife Federation
1400 16th St. N.W., Suite 501
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 797-6832
fax (202) 797-6646
sibbing@...
www.nwf.org
NWF's mission is to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our
children's future.