110 HR 2428 IH: To enhance the efficiency of bioenergy and biomass U.S. House of Representatives 2007-05-22 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2428 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 22, 2007 Mr. Edwards (for himself, Mr. Lampson, and Mr. Costa) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture A BILL To enhance the efficiency of bioenergy and biomass research and development programs through improved coordination and collaboration between the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and land-grant colleges and universities, and for other purposes.

1.

Biofuels research initiative

(a)

Short title

This section may be cited as the Biofuels Research Initiative Act of 2007. (b)

Research, extension, and educational programs on biobased energy technologies and products

Title IX of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8101 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

9011.

Research, extension, and educational programs on biobased energy technologies and products

(a)

Purposes

The purposes of the programs established under this section are— (1)to enhance national energy security through the development, distribution, and implementation of biobased energy technologies; (2)to promote diversification in, and the environmental sustainability of, agricultural production in the United States through biobased energy and product technologies; (3)to promote economic diversification in rural areas of the United States through biobased energy and product technologies; and (4)to enhance the efficiency of bioenergy and biomass research and development programs through improved coordination and collaboration between the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and the land-grant colleges and universities. (b)

Definitions

In this section: (1)

Land-grant colleges and universities

The term land-grant colleges and universities means— (A)1862 Institutions (as defined in section 2 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7601)); (B)1890 Institutions (as defined in section 2 of that Act) and West Virginia State College; and (C)1994 Institutions (as defined in section 2 of that Act). (2)

Secretary

The term Secretary means the Secretary of Agriculture. (c)

Establishment

To carry out the purposes described in subsection (a), the Secretary shall establish programs under which— (1)the Secretary shall provide grants to the lead land grant university for each of the regional consortiums with the lead university selected based on criteria in subsection (e); and (2)the consortium shall use the grants in accordance with this section. (d)

Grants to a consortium

The Secretary shall use amounts made available for a fiscal year under subsection (j) to provide a grants in equal amounts to the lead land grant university for each of the regional consortiums with the lead university selected based on criteria in subsection (e): (e)

Criteria for consortium membership

To be a member of a consortium, a university must have the following attributes: (1)Demonstrated history, capability and intellectual property in germplasm development, including but not limited to genetics, plant breeding, and molecular techniques. (2)Production logistics, including but not limited to cropping systems, harvesting technologies, storage technologies, and transportation systems. (3)Economic and policy analysis, including but not limited to probabilistic forecasts, economic feasibility, and business plans. (4)Environmental assessment, including but not limited to life-cycle analysis, climate change assessment, air quality, and water use evaluations of bioenergy production systems. (5)Facilities, including but not to facilities for genomics, plant breeding, crop production, crop processing, equipment design and fabrication, equipment testing, and environmental testing. (6)Academic and research capabilities in plant science, agronomy, soil science, plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, engineering, agricultural engineering, and agricultural economics. (7)Management capabilities in academics, research administration, intellectual property development, contract management, Federal procurement, and agricultural technology transfer. (f)

Regional consortium groups

Each of the following shall be considered a regional consortium group for the purposes of this Act: (1)

North-central consortium

A north-central university consortium for the region composed of the States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. (2)

Southeastern consortium

A southeastern university consortium for the region composed of— (A)the States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia; (B)the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and (C)the United States Virgin Islands. (3)

South-central consortium

A south-central university consortium for the region composed of the States of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. (4)

Western consortium

A western university consortium for the region composed of— (A)the States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington; and (B)territories and possessions of the United States (other than the territories referred to in subparagraphs (B) and (C) of paragraph (2)). (5)

Northeastern consortium

A northeastern university consortium for the region composed of the States of Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia. (g)

Use of funds

(1)

University consortium

Of the funds made available for a fiscal year to a consortium under subsection (d), the consortium member shall use not more than 25 percent of the amount for administration to support excellence in science, engineering, and economics at each regional consortium to promote the purposes described in subsection (a) through each applicable State agricultural experiment station, cooperative extension services, and relevant educational programs of the regional consortium member. (2)

Grants to land-grant colleges and universities

Each regional university consortium shall use the funds that remain available for a fiscal year after expenditures made under paragraph (1) to provide competitive grants to Agricultural and Land Grant colleges and universities in the region of the consortium as follows: (A)Not less than 30 percent of the funds to conduct, consistent with the purposes described in subsection (a), multi-institutional and multi-State research, extension, and educational programs on technology development. (B)Not less than 30 percent of the funds to conduct, consistent with the purposes described in subsection (a), multi-institutional and multi-State integrated research, extension, and educational programs on technology implementation. (3)

Indirect costs

A university consortium may not recover the indirect costs of making grants under paragraph (2) to other land-grant colleges and universities. (h)

Plan

Subject to the availability of funds under subsection (j), each university consortium, in cooperation with other land-grant colleges and universities and private industry in accordance with paragraph (2), shall jointly develop and submit to the Secretary, for approval, a plan for addressing at the State and regional levels the bioenergy, biomass, and gasification research priorities of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy for making grants under paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (e).

9012.

Bio Energy Consortium

(a)

Establishment

The Secretary of Agriculture shall establish a Bio Energy Consortium led by 5 universities selected by the Secretary that meet criteria of excellence across a wide range of expertise, experience, and reputation. These universities shall have responsibility for regional and disciplinary organization across the United States to identify talents and expertise that contributes to advancing biomass for energy and incorporate teams to address priority issues and to accelerate biomass for energy technologies. The lead universities are responsible for avoiding redundancy, bringing the best science to address issues and developing an integrated nationwide program. Identification of the best science for selected areas of research may be structured under a peer review competitive process developed by the 5 lead universities. (b)

External advisory group

The Bio Energy Consortium and each of the 5 lead universities selected under subsection (a) shall each— (1)be advised by external advisory group selected by the regional consortium and be comprised of stakeholders in the region and that have broad range of expertise; and (2)submit an annual report to the advisory group defining the research, extension, and teaching programs and accomplishments during of each entity submitting a report during the year for which the report is submitted. (c)

Authorization of appropriations

There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry out this section $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2017.