Biomass Crop Assistance Program at risk
Doing something new takes courage, particularly when it’s related to your land and livelihood.
With that in mind, Congress created the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to help farmers recoup some of their startup costs as they do their part to bring cellulosic ethanol to commercial reality.
BCAP matches payments for farmers harvesting new biomass crops for a period of two years. It was key to POET getting 56,000 tons of biomass delivered to the Project LIBERTY stackyard after the last harvest.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee voted to strip BCAP funding for 2012. This has a long ways to go before it gets through the House, let alone the Senate, but it’s troubling to see this vital program on the chopping block.
Scott Weishaar, POET Vice president of Commercial Development, stressed the program’s importance to Project LIBERTY:
“BCAP has helped mitigate the risk for farmers harvesting new crops for cellulosic ethanol,” he said. “It was a very important part of POET’s first commercial biomass harvest last year in Iowa.”
In today’s environment, cellulosic ethanol is needed even more.
“We are talking with members of Congress about how important this program is to the cellulosic ethanol industry,” Weishaar said. “Given the high prices for gasoline today, we are hopeful that they will recognize the need to help renewable fuels develop and expand.”
