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The 2002 Farm Bill established the Renewable Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program under Title IX, Section 9006.  This U.S. Department of Agriculture program authorizes $23 million per year in direct financial assistance for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in rural America .  

For future years of this program, the USDA must develop a federal regulation for how it will be administered. Today, October 5, 2004, USDA published its proposed rule for Section 9006 in the Federal Register (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/) for a 30-day public comment period.  USDA provides a detailed explanation for the reason they have granted only 30 days instead of 60 for public comment, while providing the opportunity for stakeholders to request an extension of time if necessary.  

USDA has outlined a specific list of issues about which it would like to receive comments; in particular, 1) what the effect of the minimum funding level of $2,500 has on potential projects, 2) whether it would be appropriate to involve ‘non-traditional’ lenders in the loan process, and 3) how can the agency better streamline or simplify the application process.  USDA is interested especially in receiving feedback from former applicants regarding the details of the application process. This comment period is the sole opportunity for the public to affect the way the Section 9006 program will be administered in the future.  USDA has posted a user-friendly, HTML version of the proposed rule. This can be found at: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/farmbill/4280proposed.htm  

Public comments will be accepted from October 5th through November 4th.  It is very important that all interested parties comment.  We want the program to work well and foster many renewable energy/energy efficiency projects allover this country.  Your comments are critical in achieving this goal.  Please contact EESI if you would be interested in submitting joint comments.  

**Please post this Action Alert or forward to any interested parties**  

The November 4^th deadline is fast approaching for the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Rural Development Grant, Loan, and Loan Guarantee Program proposed rule comment period.  Considering the volume of text needed to be picked through as well as the importance of this grant program, we encourage everyone to push for an extension to this quickly disappearing comment period.  Below is a draft e-mail request for an extension to the 30-Day comment period.  After talking to a number of people about this 270 page document, it seems a longer time is needed to digest and discuss this proposed rule.  Feel free to cut and paste the text below, or draft your own short e-mail, requesting USDA to extend the Comment Period for 30 more days.  We are encouraging a large number of stakeholders to send in this request to take advantage of the precious little time we have to propose changes to the rule for this very important rural development grant program.  

Please send e-mails to comments@usda.gov.  Thanks!

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Request for Extension of Comment Period on Proposed Rule on Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Grant, Guaranteed Loan, and Direct Loan Program, 69 Fed. Reg. 59650 (October 5, 2004) RIN No. 0570-0050  

Honorable Gilbert G. Gonzalez, Jr.

Acting Under Secretary and Deputy Under Secretary for Policy and Planning
Rural Development
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Forrestal Building
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington , D.C. 20250  

Dear Under Secretary Gilbert Gonzalez, Jr.,  

This is to request an extension of the 30-day Comment Period for the Section 9006 proposed rule for another 30 days.  I, among others, do not feel that only 30 days is a sufficient amount of time to provide thoughtful and useful comments on a proposed rule that has over the last two years become overly complex and resulted in 270 pages of dense language.  I appreciate USDA's genuine interest in receiving substantive suggestions on how better to administer this extremely important rural development grant and loan guarantee program.  But to best serve the energy needs of small ranchers, farmers, and rural small businesses-and their ability to participate in the program- I believe a great deal more work and, therefore, more time will be needed for many of us to provide the thoughtful comments necessary to help you develop a better suited rule.  

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Signed:

CC:   

Peter J. Thomas
Administrator, Business and Cooperative Programs, RD, USDA

Georg Schulz
Rural Development, USDA