A central theme of the Congressional biomass briefing held May 22 in Washington, D.C., was the importance of the interdependence between federal and state agencies, and the private sector involved in the production of renewable energy. Titled "Biomass: Addressing Our Energy Crisis" and sponsored by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), this event also focused on biomass feedstocks and the development of cellulosic ethanol technologies.

While production of ethanol and biodiesel has received a majority of media attention lately, many other biomass technologies that can generate power for industrial and agricultural uses, heat homes, and fuel cars, trucks and locomotives, can further the use of the nation's agricultural energy resources. Numerous federal and state efforts are underway to provide financial and regulatory incentives for biomass technology.

Larry Shirley, director of the North Carolina State Energy Office, told attendees these efforts are starting to gain momentum in the South with growing cooperation between various entities. "You can see it in a lot of work right here [in North Carolina]," Shirley told EPM after the event. "We have tobacco settlement money funding crop research. We have an agricultural extension service doing testing [on feedstocks]. We have the private sector trying to bring it to market and build the plants, and we provide tax incentives for biofuels plants to locate here. We need each one of these pieces working together closely." With this assortment of different technologies, incentives and programs, collaboration and solid networks among stakeholders are essential. "Trying to get financing in place for these projects is the real task," Shirley said.

According to the EESI, regional partnerships—like the one being developed in the Southeast—can create a powerful network of technicians, researchers, government officials and financiers for bioenergy products and technologies. These regional efforts can also implement new initiatives contained in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and monitor the development of new technology and bioenergy resources. A number of federal and state initiatives are being developed to provide incentives for biomass technology in 37 states that have enacted various policies to support the use of biomass resources.

These resources include agricultural residues, animal wastes, forestry wastes and crops such as barley and switchgrass. "We've been experimenting with sweet potatoes in North Carolina," Shirley said. "We can grow these ugly, industrial, high-starch sweet potatoes and hopefully in the near future use them to make cellulosic ethanol."

Partnerships among the states and with the private sector can advance new biomass technologies and replicate innovative practices from state to state.

"We have a lot of similar problems here in the Southeast—for example, we can learn from things that have been done in Kentucky or Tennessee, and we can share information and work together, " said Shirley, adding that state governments are instrumental in shifting various projects from development to implementation.

Other presenters at the briefing included Kathy Bryan, president of BBI International; Drew Bolin, director of the Colorado State Energy Office; Ed Gray of the Antares Group; and Jay Jenson, executive director of the Council of Western State Foresters.

The EESI is a non-profit organization established in 1984 by a bipartisan group of Congress members to provide an information center for environmental policy issues to policy-makers and stakeholders to further innovations that will lead to a cleaner, more secure and sustainable energy path.