Biomass groups are lining up behind a bill that Senators Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) and Frank Murkowski (R.-Alaska) introduced in the Senate

Biomass groups lining up behind a bill Senators Lott and Murkowski introduced | Norton Rose Fulbright

July 01, 2000 | By Keith Martin in Washington, DC

BIOMASS GROUPS are lining up behind a bill that Senators Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) and Frank Murkowski (R.-Alaska) introduced in the Senate in May to let section 45 tax credits be claimed on electricity generated from biomass.

Section 45 credits are credits of 1.7 cents a kilowatt hour for generating electricity from certain types of fuel. The only fuels that qualify currently are wind, poultry waste and “closed-loop biomass,” or plants grown specifically to be burned as fuel in power plants. The Lott-Murkowski bill would extend the credit to cover other kinds of biomass. However, the bill would not cover landfill gas, unsegregated municipal solid waste, or paper that is commonly recycled.

Keith Martin