USDA Publishes Rule for Revamped Biorefinery Assistance Program

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The USDA’s Rural Business Cooperative Service and Rural Utilities Service has published an interim final rule for the Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program, formerly known as the Biorefinery Assistance Program. The rule incorporates changes required by the 2014 Farm Bill and comments received on the interim final rule published in February 2011. According to a notice published in the Federal Register, the interim final rule establishes provisions for the loan guarantees available for biorefineries to support the production of advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals and for biobased product manufacturing facilities.

According to the notice, the interim rule includes several major changes to the program. Most significantly, the program is now open to renewable chemical and biobased product manufacturers. In addition, the requirement that the majority of the biorefinery production must be an advanced biofuel in order to be eligible for program assistance has been removed. Additional changes include supplementing the program to include a project-finance framework, implementing a two-phase application progress, overhauling the scoring of applications, and listing interest accrual to 90 days, in most instances, to determining what the guarantee will cover and what can be included in a loss claim.