U.S. Sens. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have introduced legislation as a part of the 2013 Farm Bill that would support agricultural energy technologies such as advanced biofuels and biogas.
The Rural Energy Investment Act contains initiatives like the Biorefinery Assistance Program, which would focus on the construction and retrofitting of biorefineries for the production of advanced biofuels. Another piece of the bill is the Biomass Research and Development Initiative, which provides competitive funding for R&D and demonstration projects related to bio-based energy, feedstocks and cellulosic ethanol.
The bill is co-sponsored by eight fellow Democrats in the Senate.
