Biofuels and biomass are big losers in Senate Ag Committee’s draft farm bill

In Washington, D.C., the Senate Agriculture Committee released their draft farm bill on Friday afternoon, The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, which includes serious blows for biofuel and biomass funding, while offering positive changes and expansions for dairy producers, the Agriculture Risk Coverage program, Conservation Reserve Program and other programs. The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to act on the bill on Wednesday.

According to AgWeek, “The draft closely tracks the 2014 farm bill and would create few new programs. Programs that were designed to promote energy efficiency and development of fuel and chemicals from biomass are left without mandatory funding for the most part, a major blow to industries that rely on the programs. The Rural Energy for America Program would be provided with $50 million a year, the same amount it was allocated in the 2014 farm bill. But funding for other programs, including biomass crop assistance and advanced biofuel support would be left up to congressional appropriators. The House bill would eliminate the farm bill energy title as well as the permanent funding baseline for REAP.”