Giant miscanthus will soon be grown for biomass energy in Missouri and three other states.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) today announced the establishment of two Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) project areas in Missouri that will produce the dedicated energy crop miscanthus to be used for heat, power, liquid biofuels, and bio-based products.
“We are hopeful that as a result of this announcement we can assist the creation of up to 8250 acres in those two project areas of land that can be used to grow miscanthus,” said Vilsack. Yields for biomass from giant miscanthus are expected to range between 10 and 12 tons of dry matter per acre and can be as high as 15 tons per acre.
“This energy crop is a crop that will grow on land that is not necessarily the best farmland for anything else,” added Senator Blunt.
Despite the fact that future funding for BCAP is in danger, the $20 million for these projects has already been approved by Congress, and Blunt says this kind of spending benefits the economy. “If you’ve got a program like this where you can take a relatively small amount of money and create a private sector job that helps us solve our energy problem, I’m going to continue to be supportive of those kinds of policies.”
In addition to Missouri, project areas will also be established in Ohio, Arkansas and Pennsylvania. USDA estimates that these project areas and conversion facilities would earn about $50 million per year and create nearly 4,000 jobs by 2014.
Listen to or download the Vilsack-Blunt press conference here: Miscanthus BCAP Projects
More details on the project areas can be found here.
To all whom support Miscanthus and biomass,
You are foolish to do so with all the subsides involved it never pays for itself and we end up supporting it all the way around. This will also cut into our feedstock and causes grocery prices to rise and food shortages. Surely you all can’t be that foolish to support such a pork barrel project that never stops needing support. It was announced last week that solar and wind power plants are now feasible to produce energy such as electricity and your ethanol program is actually obsolete. The newer technology is just a step away and it will be truly renewable not a tax payer night mare. We not only pay at the pumps but with our tax money is used to support the building and fuel to run the plant supported by again our tax money in the form of BCAP. There is another problem with these plants, the miscanthus grown by farmers falls far short of the corn and soy at $80 or $85 a ton compared to Miscanthus at $45 a ton or less and another $15 to $20 an acre for fertilizer in which to grow the Miscanthus. Meaning the farmer and the tax payer both loose in this deal. You need to do more homework before backing something so lame as ethanol plants and biomass plants that burn wood also to make electricity period. These plants are just money pits for the tax payer to support. If the Senators who are putting a blind eye toward this technology would like to be educated about these plants without all the smoking mirrors I’d be happy to meet with them and show them the facts. Just the cold hard facts that you are all ignoring. It’s time to stop the madness and waste of tax payer money. Let’s do some auditing of these companies that make the ethanol. You’ll see not one can stand on their own two feet without the taxpayer money supporting them. Quit wasting our tax dollars. Let the lobbyist and the campaign contributors find another way to support theirselves without involving our tax money. This is just another scam at the American Tax Payer’s expense. Thank you for your time!
It never fails that when an alternative source springs up, there is a fierce campaign against it. With BP owning the lionshare of solar components I don’t see solar becoming affordable for the homeowner anytime soon. Ethanol is being blamed for clogging fuel systems when it’s the base product that Ethanol is put into. Investors falsely inflate the price of corn on the CBOT. Keep corn high and you keep ethanol production high. Simply investing $ to insure their main source of income which is oil stays in the forefront.
Now for yields, Miscanthus is targeted for marginal land that will not produce the yields that suppport numbers reflected by Miss Graff respectfully. How do I back that up? I am a farmer.
Subsidies have been given a black eye. Opponents make it sound as if this money is thrown down a hole and gone. Farm subsidies keep farmers spending money. Money that creates jobs. Farmers producing high input crops can not be insured survival without subsidies. They are at the mercy of those who set input costs and also from grain buyers who create false market scenarios to offer below board prices on crops they have for sale.
Simply put, there are very wealthy, very powerful folks who are ready to crush anything that threatens to cut into their peice of pie…excuse me their pies (multiple) We are being taken for a ride here America and it’s not the politicians orchestrating. Wise up.