U.S. to List Loan Guarantees for Biomass Plants
A handful of the next generation Biomass will be named on Thursday as recipients of federal loan guarantees to cover the new biofuel market, said an industry source. The loan guarantees would help build commercial-size plants using materials such as wood chips, straw or crop debris. The new materials, mainly cellulose, are assumed to replace corn as the major source of U.S. biofuels in time.
Agriculture Minister Tom Vilsack said last autumn that five biomass projects around the nation would be selected for Agriculture Department loan guarantees. He said he hoped announce the awards at the end of 2010. A half dozen applications were reviewed at USDA last covered with up to $ 650 million in guarantees available.This is a USDA spokesman declined in advance an anticipated reaction update by Vilsack on renewable energy programs on Thursday.
Loan guarantees were among four areas cited by Vilsack for USDA assistance to biofuels. The others were matching funds to retailers so-called blender pumps, the performance of installed a program towards the costs of raw materials for biofuel plants that the expansion of production and launching a program that pays you to 75 percent of the cost to farmers to grow biomass crops in nearby biofuels or bioenergy plants.