Federal Agencies Moving Ahead to Reduce Climate Change Risks: Biofuels, Agriculture, and Forestry

A number of federal agency initiatives are already underway in the biofuels, agriculture, and forestry sectors to help mitigate climate change and adapt to it.

• In a posting July 2 , Doug O’Brien, Acting Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), reviewed recent interagency collaboration on advanced biofuels. " We have an ongoing partnership with the U.S. Department of the Navy and Department of Energy to develop advanced, drop-in biofuels for aviation and marine use. And through our recently renewed Farm to Fly Agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration and commercial sector partners, USDA is working across the supply chain to accelerate the development of commercial scale, cost-competitive aviation biofuels that will create competition in the marketplace and reduce costs with a cleaner alternative to jet fuel. Under the agreement, USDA has aligned its efforts to enable commercially viable, sustainable bio-Jet Fuel supply chains in the U.S. that are able to support the goal of one billion gallons of bio-Jet Fuel production capacity and use for the Aviation Enterprise by 2018."
   
• The Department of Energy announced July 1 : " Following last week's rollout of President Obama's plan to cut carbon pollution, the Energy Department today announced four research and development projects to bring next generation biofuels on line faster and drive down the cost of producing gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels from biomass. The projects—located in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin—represent a $13 million Energy Department investment ."
   
• The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced June 20 " the award of nearly $2.5 million in grants to 10 small businesses and community groups for wood-to-energy projects that will help expand regional economies and create new jobs. 'These grants help grow new jobs, support clean energy production and improve our local environments, especially in reducing fire threats,' said Tidwell">Chief of the USFS. 'Communities from Massachusetts to Alaska will benefit from the program this year.' The projects will use woody material removed from forests during projects such as wildfire prevention and beetle-killed trees, and process woody biomass in bioenergy facilities to produce green energy for heating and electricity. "
   
• In April, the USDA and dairy producers renewed an agreement to reduce methane emissions 25 percent by 2020. According to the USDA press release : " USDA support for agricultural and waste-to-energy research has played a key role in the agreement's success to date. Since signing the MOU [in 2009 , USDA has made nearly 180 awards that helped finance the development, construction, and biogas production of anaerobic digester systems with Rural Development programs, such as the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels, Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, Value Added Producer Grants, amongst others. These systems capture methane and produce renewable energy for on-farm use and sale onto the electric grid. Additionally, during this period, USDA awarded approximately 140 REAP loans and grants to help dairy farmers develop other types of renewable energy and energy efficiency systems at their operations. "