|
Increased
Bioenergy Funding from Senate Energy & Water
Appropriations Subcommittee
On June 27,
the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee
funded the Bioenergy program (Sec. 931(c) of Energy Policy Act
of 2005 (P.L. 109-58)), at its full authorization of $213
million for FY07. This
is an increase of $63 million over the President’s request
and the House appropriation level.
This is also an increase of $123 million over the FY06
funding level. The Regional Bioeconomy Development Grants (Sec. 945) received $3
million; this program was not in the President’s request or
in the House bill.
The Senate committee report directs the
Department of Energy (DOE) to study the “reverse auction”
authorized in Sec. 942, Production
Incentives for Cellulosic Biofuels.
The Senate bill also clarifies language in Title
XVII of EPAct 2005, Incentives for Innovative Technologies,
which authorizes DOE to execute federal loan guarantees for
various technologies, including the Cellulosic
Biomass Ethanol and Municipal Solid Waste Loan Guarantee
Program (Sec. 1511(b)). Loan guarantees allow eligible
projects to use private financing to cover the risk premium
traditionally covered by DOE, but still provide the credit
backing of the federal government. This
can lower the cost of money substantially for projects and
catalyze expanded investments in new technologies.
The committee also provided an increase of $3.2 million
to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to support
additional surveys on ethanol and gasoline markets.
Full Committee markup is scheduled for
Thursday, June 29 at 2:00 pm. The bill will go to the Senate
floor after the Fourth of July recess and then will be
conferenced with the House bill (H.R. 5427).
Click
here to see the Press Release from the Subcommittee
Production
Incentives for Cellulosic Biofuels (Reverse Auction) Comment
Period
On June 15, the Department of Energy
(DOE) posted a Request for Information (RFI) concerning the
cellulosic ethanol reverse auction, formally known as Production
Incentives for Cellulosic Biofuels program (Sec. 942) of
the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58). The
RFI requests comments from the public on the most efficient
way to implement this section’s incentives for cellulosic
biofuel production; comments must be submitted by 8:00
pm ET, Friday, July 14, 2006.
The purpose of Sec. 942 is to —
(1) accelerate
deployment and commercialization of biofuels;
(2) deliver the
first 1,000,000,000 gallons in annual cellulosic biofuels
production by 2015;
(3) ensure
biofuels produced after 2015 are cost competitive with
gasoline and diesel; and
(4) ensure that
small feedstock producers and rural small businesses are full
participants in the development of the cellulosic biofuels
industry.
Sec. 942 provides for the establishment
of a “reverse auction”, an incentive to help make
cellulosic biofuels cost competitive by 2015. Sec.
942 authorizes the Secretary of Energy to set payments/gallon
for cellulosic biofuels which eligible producers would receive
until the first reverse auction is held.
The reverse auction would require DOE to solicit bids
from eligible producers. The
lowest bid for payments/gallon would receive the incentive
funding. This
method is expected to keep prices for biofuels at a
competitive level in comparison with fossil fuels.
DOE
is soliciting comments on: 1) the interim period during which
payments are fixed by the Secretary; and 2) the establishment
and operation of the reverse auction.
Sec. 942, if properly funded and
implemented, will be a boon for various parties.
The Governors’ Ethanol Coalition, in a letter to the
President, urged full funding of Sec. 942 (authorized at $250
million). The new
Aspen Institute report, A High Growth Strategy for Ethanol,
also calls for the full funding of Sec. 942, while recognizing
that even this amount will be insufficient to achieve
recommended goals for replacing fossil fuels. (Sec.
942 has received no appropriation to date.)
Please see the full RFI to submit
comments. If
you have comments to submit (or that you may already have
submitted), please also send them to me at jwong@eesi.org.
If we receive sufficient interest and comments, EESI will
submit a compilation of comments to the DOE.
Click
here for DOE Solicitation
For a list of specific questions and
issues that DOE wishes comments to address, please visit:
DOE
Supplemental
Click
here for GEC letter to the President
Click
here for Aspen Institute report
Click
here for PDF of this Action Alert
If you have questions, please email or
call Jetta Wong at jwong@eesi.org
or (202) 662-1885.
|
