The US will help fund the growing of crops for biofuels in six states, an expansion of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program created in 2008, the Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.
Four new project areas will set aside hundreds of acres in California, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington for the production of renewable energy crops, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
USDA has allocated about $45 million for contracts that range from less than five years to up to 15 years. Producers who participate in the BCAP program are eligible for reimbursements of up to 75% of the establishment costs of the crop, plus annual maintenance payments for up to five years for herbaceous crops and up to 15 years for woody crops, USDA said.
"The Obama Administration is committed to providing financial opportunities to rural communities, farmers and ranchers to produce biomass which will be converted to renewable fuels and increase America's energy independence," Vilsack said in a statement. "The selection of these project areas is another step in the effort to assist the nation's advanced biofuel industry produce energy in commercial quantities from sustainable rural resources."
Vilsack said the department is able to fully fund the new round of projects, even if deep cuts are made by Congress in the USDA's 2012 budget.
"The funding is there to fully pay the responsibilities and contracts that will be entered into under these projects," Vilsack told reporters during a conference call. "We aren't making a commitment that is dependent on or conditioned upon subsequent appropriations."
Future funding for projects under the program could be threatened, however, as Congress looks to cut funding for the BCAP program, Vilsack said.
"The Congress has essentially reduced its commitment to BCAP and there is no assurance at this point in time that we will have additional resources," Vilsack said. "I would hope, notwithstanding the fact that we are dealing with constrained resources, that we do not loose sight of the opportunity to invest and to grow the economy and to allow that growth to also help get control of our fiscal house."
Two of the project areas, targeted for California, Montana, Washington and Oregon, will grow camelina, an oilseed that is idea to produce a biofuel that can substitute for jet fuel. The project has a target of 51,000 acres.
Another BCAP project area will encourage the growth of hybrid poplar trees in Oregon.
A BCAP project area in Kansas and Oklahoma has been designated to grow up to 20,000 acres of switchgrass.
