On June 11 the USDA Rural Business Cooperative Service has published a notice of contract proposals in the Federal Register, announcing the availability of $98.6 million for payments under the Advanced Biofuel Payment Program. Of the $98.6 million, $68.6 million will be available for fiscal year 2013 production, with the remaining $30 million available for payments in previous fiscal years.

According to the notice, applications for participating in the Advanced Biofuel Payment Program for fiscal year 2013 were accepted during the month of October 2012.  In addition, the notice specifies that the USDA will also consider new applications received by July 11 for fiscal year 2013 funds. However, producers applying for funds under the program after June 11 will not be paid for payment requests submitted after the payment request timeframe.

Full application instructions are available on the Federal Register website.

The USDA also published an amendment to its notice of funding availability for the Rural Energy for America Program on June 11. On March 29, the department announced it was accepting applicants for fiscal year 2013 REAP funding, and that $20.8 million was available under the program. The amended notice announces that approximately $44.4 million in additional fiscal year 2013 funding for REAP activities has been made available under the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013. This increases the full fiscal year 2013 funding available to approximately $65.2 million. The notice also extends the application period through June 14 for fiscal year 2013 applications and applicants who submitted fiscal year 2012 applications and wish to submit written requests to have those 2012 applications considered for fiscal year 2013 funding. A prior notice published on May 8 originally extended the deadline from April 30 to May 31.

Additional information on applying for fiscal year 2013 REAP funding is available on the Federal Register website here.