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House Bill 4031 |
House Author: McCall et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-09 |
Senate Sponsor: Seliger |
House Bill 4031 amends the Agriculture Code to include renewable biomass aggregators and bio-coal fuel producers among those who are eligible to receive grants from the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) under the agricultural biomass and landfill diversion incentive program as providers of specified fuels to facilities that use biomass to generate electricity, and to add co-firing biomass to the list of eligible fuels. The bill defines such an aggregator and producer to mean an operator of an integrated harvesting, transportation, and fuel conversion facility that aggregates qualified agricultural or forest biomass and produces renewable fuel suitable for replacing coal or co-firing with coal. It includes certain operators within the definition of a diverter and clarifies the definition of qualified agricultural biomass to include cotton gin trash, corn stover, grain sorghum harvest residues, sugarcane bagasse, and switchgrass as well as state designated forest management cuttings and brush management cuttings from private lands. The bill makes a facility placed in service before August 31, 2009, eligible for reimbursement under the program if another facility placed in operation after August 31, 2009, is located 25 miles or less from the existing facility. It clarifies that money in the program account may be appropriated to the TDA for administrative purposes. The bill authorizes the TDA, on a determination that money in the account is insufficient to pay reimbursements or grants, to develop a proportionate and equitable schedule to pay the reimbursements or grants.