Reintroduction of the Biomass for Transportation Fuel Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, today I reintroduce the ``Biomass for Transportation Fuel Act,'' formerly titled the ``Biomass and Biogas for Electric Vehicles Act'' last Congress. I thank U.S. Senators Angus S. King, Jr. (I-ME) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) for sponsoring the companion bill and Congressman Jared F. Golden (D-ME) for cosponsoring my House bill.

In passing the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-140), Congress made electricity from renewable biomass-- including biogas and waste-to-energy from feedstocks such as separated yard or food waste--eligible under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Despite years of Congressional urging, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has yet to approve a single biomass electricity facility under the program. Some applications for biomass electricity--known as ``pathway petitions'' under the RFS program--have been pending now for nearly 10 years.

Current law and USEPA regulations already define ``renewable biomass'' to include biogas, namely methane captured from livestock and agricultural byproducts, food waste, or residential yard waste. As such, our bicameral bill complements the significant investments California is making under the state's successful Dairy Digester Research and Development Program.

Currently, the USEPA requires facilities to prove with near-perfect traceability that the electricity generated is used as a transportation fuel to participate in the RFS program. Most renewable biomass facilities are selling electricity into the grid and, therefore, cannot prove definitively that each electron generated is used exclusively by electric vehicles.

The ``Biomass for Transportation Fuel Act'' would enable biomass facilities generating renewable electricity to finally participate in the RFS program. Instead of requiring that biomass facilities meet the impossible task of proving that the electricity generated and sold into the grid is used directly as a transportation fuel, our bill directs the USEPA to finalize the long-overdue federal regulations necessary for renewable biomass electricity producers to participate in the RFS program.

Our bill would also authorize USEPA to collect a reasonable fee from industry to cover the costs of reviewing any applications for renewable electricity submitted under the RFS program. In a 2016 ``advance notice of proposed rulemaking,'' the USEPA cited inadequate agency resources as a major impediment to approval of renewable electricity under the RFS program. The USEPA could waive these application fees for municipally or tribally owned biomass facilities under our bill. This fee-for-service model is based on the USEPA's regulatory regime under the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2003 (title V of Public Law 108-199), which is widely regarded as successful and enjoys broad- based support in Congress.

Lastly, our bill would make biomass from federal forestlands eligible under the RFS. Current law only allows biomass collected from non- federal lands, including privately-owned land, state- or locally-owned public lands, and tribal land held in trust by the federal government, to qualify as renewable biomass under the RFS. This restriction is arbitrary and hampers market-driven incentives to reduce the overload of hazardous fuels for wildfires on our National Forests and other federal forestlands. However, I want to be clear that our bill would not open federal forestland to timber harvests or commercial hazardous fuels removal where such activities are prohibited currently.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all members to cosponsor the ``Biomass for Transportation Fuel Act.'' As California and other western states face increasingly severe and year-round fire seasons due to the climate crisis, we must create a market for forest byproducts to incentivize commonsense hazardous fuels reduction. Renewable electricity from biomass also helps to reduce our nation's greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a clean energy economy. While these measures alone will not solve the climate crisis or prevent all catastrophic wildfires, they are undoubtedly part of the solution.

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