A Potential Boost to the Pellet Market
By: Erin Voegele
Biomass Power and Thermal
Pending legislation in the House could help open up wider domestic markets for wood fuel pellets. Reps. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and Kurt Schrader D-Ore. recently introduced the Forest Products Fairness Act of 2012 (H.R. 5873), which is legislation that aims to add a wide range of forestry products—including fuel pellets—as qualifying products under the USDA’s BioPreferred program. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
The BioPreferred program has made great progress over the past year. The program essentially aims to increase the use of biobased products through a federal procurement requirement, and a biobased labeling program. In its current form, the program excludes most forest products from participating.
