Editors' Summary

Rapidly emerging renewable energy legislation in the United States will create unprecedented demand for biomass feedstock. In 2008, Congress created the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). Program implementation, however, has been fraught with delays. USDA has yet to designate project areas that govern establishment and annual production payments, the newly issued draft EIS leaves some important questions unanswered, and the federal government lacks an integrated biomass deployment strategy. Only timely and thoughtful deployment of BCAP funding, coupled with a coordinated federal strategy, will secure the commercialization of biomass so critical to America's future renewable energy needs.