Newsletter Archive

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released its proposed rule for the Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program (or FB4P), which was authorized by Section 9002 of the 2002 Farm Bill. The USDA Office of Administration developed the draft guidelines to help institute the Federal procurement of biobased products. Ultimately, the rule will be implemented by other Federal agencies. The proposed rule is available online at www.biobased.oce.usda.gov and the USDA is seeking public feedback during the 60-day comment period, which is due to close on February 19th, 2004. During a public meeting held January 29, 2004, which also simultaneously broadcast on the Web, presentations were made by several USDA representatives to outline the proposed rule.

The goal of the program is to significantly increase the use of biobased industrial products by Federal agencies. This should spur the growth of biobased industries within the United States. Growth of a biobased industry would also encourage economic development in rural communities, since biobased products create new sources of demand for biomass resources from U.S. farms, ranches, and forests. Many of the post-production processing and conversion of these biomass resources into biobased products would occur in rural communities.

In addition to these economic benefits biobased products are more environmentally benign and biodegradable than fossil fuel-based counterparts. As a result, they have lower costs for clean-up and disposal. Additionally, making biobased products helps to sequester carbon already in the atmosphere by taking the form of plant matter, rather than extracting new carbon from mines or wells.¹

The USDA's proposed rule sets the framework for the operation of FB4P. In the guidelines, a biobased product is defined as a product determined by the Secretary of Agriculture to be a commercial or industrial product (other than food or feed) that is composed, in whole or in significant part, of biological products or renewable domestic agricultural materials (including plant, animal, and marine materials) or forestry materials.²

In addition to meeting the definition of a biobased product, other factors are being taken into consideration before an item will be designated by the Secretary of Agriculture for preferred procurement. Information on the maturity of the market, availability, relative price, performance, environmental and public health benefits - all need to be gathered and assessed before the USDA can move forward with a rule to designate generic groups (or items) for preferred procurement. After an item is designated, every product that fits into that generic grouping must meet the minimum statute for biobased content.

Data on the market maturity, availability, product categories, items, and proposed minimum biobased content data were developed for the USDA, in part, through a study by Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC). The CTC study can be viewed on the Web site http://www.biobased.oce.usda.gov . Other information, such as biobased content and environmental and public health benefits must be determined by the manufacturer through specific testing methods. For instance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology BEES (Building for Environment and Economic Sustainability) must be used to identify the environmental and public health benefits and life cycle costs. In addition, ASTM International has recently finalized and adopted a testing method for determining biobased content, which the guidelines stipulate must be used. If manufacturers can certify through third-party testing that their product meets or exceeds the guidelines, then manufacturers can claim preferred procurement status when marketing to Federal agencies. Manufacturers are being asked to voluntarily post information on their biobased products on the USDA's informational Web site . In addition to being used by Federal agencies to identify biobased products that meet Federal procurement needs, this Web site will also provide a broad range of information about the program.

The USDA aims to have the first few items designated by the regulation for preferred procurement before the end of fiscal year 2004. It is important to note that the order of item designation will be based on how quickly the required information for designating items is made available from manufacturers. While the program will start out relatively slowly, it is projected that it will gather momentum as additional items are designated. Within a few years, the market could be worth several billion dollars for manufacturers and vendors.³

The proposed rule also provides for a labeling program for products meeting certain requirements to be determined by the USDA through separate rule making. The USDA will make available a "U.S.D.A. Certified Biobased Product" logo and label to manufacturers and vendors for qualifying products. The USDA will soon begin drafting proposed rules under which this voluntary labeling program will operate. The USDA aims to have a proposed rule on the labeling program published in the Federal Register for public comment by the end of fiscal year 2004.

Comments on the proposed rule, along with further information, can be found on the USDA's Web site at http://biobased.oce.usda.gov/public/faq.cfm . You may also contact Marvin Duncan, Office of Energy Policy and New Uses, at (202) 401-0532 or email him at mduncan@oce.usda.gov for more information.

In 2000, the State of Oregon consumed nearly 1,080 trillion Btus of energy. Hydroelectric accounted for about 36 percent of total consumption followed closely by petroleum, which provided 35 percent. Additionally, natural gas and coal provided 21 and 4 percent of total consumption respectively. In Oregon, biomass supplied around 4 percent of the total energy consumption, over 42 trillion Btus.¹ Biomass combustion in Georgia comes from pulping liquor and industrial wood fiber pulp, solid waste and digester and landfill gas.²

Over the past 8 years, Oregon has been the site of a number of projects to increase thermal and electric power from biomass. Currently Oregon has one working digester at CalGon Farms, a dairy farm with 400 cows. In addition, the Port of Tillamook Bay and Threemile Canyon Farms are both working to install digesters at their farms. Tillamook Bay houses 4,000 cows, and Threemile Canyon is one of the largest dairy operations in the world, housing 20,000 cows.³ The Columbia Boulevard wastewater treatment plant houses the first installation in the western United States of a fuel cell running on wastewater digester gas and only the third such system in the nation.⁴ In addition to the wastewater and manure digesters, two landfills produce electric power from landfill gas and the EPA has stated a potential for five additional landfills to install digesters to produce energy.⁵

Currently, Oregon does not produce ethanol, but has the potential to produce 170 mgy, and if long-term forest residues are secured, the production could be increased to 195 mgy.⁶ The Oregon Department of Energy, which sponsored the Oregon Cellulose-Ethanol Study, along with Oregon Department of Agriculture, Oregon Farm Bureau, Northwest Coop Development Center sponsored an Harvesting Clean Energy Conference from January 20-21, 2004. The conference included four product development sessions offered each day, which featured experts and farmers with direct experience in successful clean energy projects. Speakers walked through the nuts and bolts of project development, including feasibility and economic assessments, technical and financial resources, and finding markets demonstrating the pathways to profitable rural clean energy production.⁷

Since at least 1983, the State of Oregon has enacted legislative initiatives to encourage the use of biomass.⁸ This includes legislation requiring the use of solid waste for energy production take precedence over landfill disposal. More recently, tax credits have been available to businesses in Oregon for co-generation, biomass, and renewable transportation fuels projects and individuals who use alternative fuels in their vehicles.^9,10

BACK TO TOP