The federal government’s love affair with ethanol subsidies drove up food prices, depleted plains state aquifers and subsidized the destruction of water fowl habitat. Today’s Washington Post reports that that Biomass Crop Assistance Program is having similarly untoward and unintended consequences.
In a matter of months, the Biomass Crop Assistance Program — a small provision tucked into the 2008 farm bill — has mushroomed into a half-a-billion dollar subsidy that is funneling taxpayer dollars to sawmills and lumber wholesalers, encouraging them to sell their waste to be converted into high-tech biofuels. In doing so, it is shutting off the supply of cheap timber byproducts to the nation’s composite wood manufacturers, who make panels for home entertainment centers and kitchen cabinets. . . .
A range of renewable materials can be converted into energy sources: Wood pellets, rice hulls and fiber from sugar cane can produce electricity; algae and corn cobs can be converted into liquid fuel. The federal government is actively working to support the growth of as many of these biomass crops as possible, in part to meet requirements under the 2007 energy bill: The country must produce 5.5 billion gallons of advanced biofuels annually in five years, and 21 billion gallons by 2022. Right now, almost no U.S. land is devoted to raising biomass crops; according to congressional estimates, by 2022 the country will need between 22.2 and 55.5 million acres for this purpose. . . .
The federal government can provide up to $45 a ton in matching payments to businesses that collect, harvest, store and transport biomass waste to an authorized energy facility. That means sawdust or wood shavings may be twice as valuable if a lumber mill sells them to a biomass energy company instead of to a traditional buyer.This is bad news for the composite panel industry, which turns these materials into particleboard and medium-density fiberboard, and outranks the U.S. biomass industry in terms of employees and economic impact, with 21,000 employees and annual sales of $7.9 billion, according to 2006 U.S. Census data.
The biomass subsidy program could “wipe us out,” said T.J. Rosengarth, the vice president and chief operating officer of Flakeboard, the largest composite panel producer in North America. “You can say, ‘I’ve made more alternative energy,’ but at what expense?”
mwb says:
Has there ever been an agricultural subsidy that hasn’t had horribly counter-productive effects in markets, land use and environmental impacts, trade, international food prices, and encouraging efficient, sustainable practices? I’m not saying that there hasn’t been, but surely, the record is largely not good. I have admittedly limited knowledge on the topic, but it seems to me that the ag industry is the biggest ‘welfare queen’ of all.
January 10, 2010, 1:03 pmPaddy says:
The scientific literature clearly indicates that biomass burning is a primary cause of the brown pollution cloud over India, China and East Asia. Burning biomass in N America will severely degrade our air quality. Biomass burning is far worse than the exhaust from coal and natural gas fueled power plants.
I find it amazing that environmentalists oppose sources of cheap energy and offer biomass burning as a substitute. Clearly they have no shame.
January 10, 2010, 1:54 pmPK Sully says:
Ah, the law of unintended consequences, like price elasticity, can be ignored by interfering legislators but that makes it no less binding.
January 10, 2010, 2:18 pmLarryA says:
We shouldn’t have called it a “law.” It gives politicians the idea they can amend it.
January 10, 2010, 4:25 pmThe Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Another Biomass Blunder « MaddMedic says:
[...] PDRTJS_settings_486118_post_5216 = { "id" : "486118", "unique_id" : "wp-post-5216", "title" : "The+Volokh+Conspiracy+%C3%82%C2%BB+Blog+Archive+%C3%82%C2%BB+Another+Biomass+Blunder", "item_id" : "_post_5216", "permalink" : "http%3A%2F%2Fmaddmedic.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F10%2Fthe-volokh-conspiracy-a%25c2%25bb-blog-archive-a%25c2%25bb-another-biomass-blunder%2F" } The Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Another Biomass Blunder [...]
January 10, 2010, 4:28 pmJim Ancona says:
Guess he’d better increase his campaign contributions–it’s the way you get things done in the USA circa 2010.
January 10, 2010, 5:19 pmJohn Moore says:
LarryA clearly wins the thread!
January 10, 2010, 5:30 pmvic says:
We are getting some new shelving put in some closets
January 11, 2010, 1:28 amI have been told by the installer that right now actual wood shelving is a lot cheeper than MDF
go figure
Doc Merlin says:
When will legislators ever learn that any attempt to manipulate the market necessarily makes it less efficient.
January 11, 2010, 3:01 amSeagull says:
No, It doesn’t give them the idea that they can amend it, it tells them that they can ignore it…
January 11, 2010, 8:39 amDennis N says:
You’re comparing apples to oranges. Yes, they burn biomass in large quantities in the Turd World, largely by shovelling the stuff into fires.
The Biomass Subsidies programs, AKA the Federal Diesel to Ethanol Conversion Program, will convert biomass to ethanol, which we can drink, increasing the production of clean methane from our nether regions. Seriously, if only for a moment, burning ethanol, which has numerous problems, is not the same problem the Turd World has with biomass. Even if we were to shovel the grass clippings into furnaces, our technology is very good at cleaning up the smoke. I was involved in a process in the 80s, that did this very cleanly, and I presume we’ve gotten better since.
Burning gas, coal and oil amounts to burning biomass, albeit somewhat removed from the current time frame. And it’s not all that clean, unless you spend lots of bucks cleaning it up.
January 11, 2010, 1:03 pmTatil says:
What we are doing is not just shoveling cow manure and tree branches into an oven. I was once told that “a little knowledge” is very dangerous. I keep ending up agreeing with that statement.
January 11, 2010, 5:16 pmNew Federal Program Kills Jobs, While Costing Taxpayers Half a Billion Dollars | OpenMarket.org says:
[...] Program…has mushroomed into a half-a-billion dollar subsidy.” It’s a “Biomass Blunder,” says environmental law professor Jonathan [...]
January 12, 2010, 11:27 amPooped out from being loved to death by the gov't says:
When the gov’t mandates 15 percent or greater ethanol in our gasolines most cars built before 2000 and many cars after will become obsolete overnight, destroying their marketability and forcing replacement modifications or the purchase of an ethanol friendly new vehicle.
I also heard today the gov’t wants to regulate the amount of salt in our foods.
January 12, 2010, 12:27 pmAltsaver says:
Great Blog. I presonally think that alternative energy should be used in domestic and industrial enviroment. Because most of the resources we use can be used as alternative energy for example here is site that explains how to use waste oil http://www.wasteoilheatersale.com/
January 15, 2010, 11:03 amjim says:
Good information here. I enjoyed reading this and can’t wait for more. Keep up the good work.
January 23, 2010, 11:15 am