NH Delegation Urges EPA to Level Playing Field for Producers of Biomass Energy

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) sent a letter with Representatives Annie Kuster (NH-02) and Chris Pappas (NH-01) calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to act on existing Congressional direction to include electricity in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in time for biomass power producers to participate in the 2020 market. The New Hampshire biomass power industry has been directly threatened by the agency’s failure to include electricity in the RFS program. The RFS program was created by Congress in 2005 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector and expand the nation’s renewable fuels sector, which includes electricity produced by biomass.

The delegation wrote, “Failing to include electricity has had, and will continue to have, dire consequences for electricity producers who cannot participate in the program and the supply chains that rely on them. Biomass, biogas and waste-to-energy producers are making biofuels available for transportation but are receiving no credit under the RFS for doing so. This puts rural jobs and local government infrastructure at risk in vital sectors of our economy, including farming, forestry, logging and waste-to-energy.”

The full text of the letter is available here.