Rey Praises Manure-to-Energy Project in Recent Visit to Pa.

But Criticizes Congress on Farm Bill Issues

CHRIS TORRES
Staff Writer

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The USDA’s chief of natural resources recently paid a visit to the Harrisburg area to show his support for a proposed manure-to-energy project involving growing switchgrass on Schuylkill County mine lands — and to blast the current state of Farm Bill dealings in Washington.

Mark Rey, under secretary of natural resources and the environment, announced the Pennsylvania Environmental Council was in the running to receive $212,000 for a project that would use chicken manure and abandoned mine lands to produce energy.

The project, which is being supervised by Penn State researchers, has already been started at small test plots in State College and Hegins, Pa. The project will test the feasibility of using raw poultry manure mixed with pulp mill sludge, a byproduct of paper, and mixing it with mine spoil to create a soil mixture that would be used to grow switchgrass.

Experts believe switchgrass is a potential source for ethanol and other biofuels.
“It solves four separate environmental problems,” Rey said of the project, including manure waste management, waterway contamination from excess manure, mine reclamation, and alternative energy sources.

The money for the project comes from the USDA’s Conservation Innovation Grant program and it will be used to increase the scope of the project in Schuylkill County from five 20-feet by 30-feet lots to at least 30 acres.

The Council estimates Pennsylvania has at least 200,000 acres of abandoned mine lands.

Along with seeing if switchgrass can be grown on abandoned mine lands, Scott Vandemark, director of special projects for the council, said researchers will also be testing the project’s economic viability. He said it costs $25 per ton to haul chicken manure 125 miles and researchers will need at least 1,000 tons of manure for the project. There is also the costs of pulp sludge and material handling to consider, along with seeing if anyone will actually buy the product once the first cut is made.

Switchgrass, however, is seen by many as a potential source for cellulosic ethanol, an alternative to corn-based ethanol. So it could be an economic goldmine for anyone lucky enough to grow it.

“Whoever owns the abandoned mine land, they obviously can make money,” Vandemark said. But he cautioned more research needs to be done before potential growers get excited.

Barring any major setbacks, it will take between two and three years before the first plots are fully grown.

A separate test block will be used to test the feasibility of using high intensity native grasses as a potential energy source.

Farm Bill Frustration
Rey’s visit was also a chance for him to show his frustration with Congress on what he said is their failure to act on conservation proposals in this year’s Farm Bill.

Since 2002, the USDA, according to Rey, has awarded nearly $20 million worth of grants under the Conservation Innovation Grant program.

The USDA’s proposal is to increase the available monies in the grant to $100 million along with other proposals dealing with reforms to commodity programs. The proposals include increasing conservation funding by at least $780 million per year through the duration of the Farm Bill, providing new loan guarantees and grants for sources of renewable energy, and making changes to credit programs to help beginner farmers.

Although the proposals would require a lot of money, Rey said much of it would come from proposed changes to commodity subsidies, which would be tied to farm revenues, not product. Under the USDA’s proposal, an eligible farmer would have to make less than $200,000 in adjustable gross income to be eligible for subsidies. Rey estimated it would affect 35,000 farmers that receive benefits under the current system. The maximum award to any producer would be capped at $340,000. If the changes were approved, Rey said it would save the government $5 billion over the duration of the next Farm Bill.

But none of the proposals have even made it out of subcommittees. It’s something Rey calls a “status quo, backward-looking approach” to dealing with agriculture, even though lawmakers are still early in the decision making process. “It’s very early. We’re going to hang in there,” he said. “But we’re disappointed with what we’re seeing in the house subcommittees.”