The NARA members include scientists from the Forest Service and other government laboratories, public universities, and private industry throughout the northwest. Four teams will conduct research on feedstocks, conversion, systems metrics, and education and outreach.

The teams plan to identify communities in each of the four states that comprise the NARA project (Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Washington) for possible development of biorefineries, and will serve as a conduit between researchers and community stakeholders, helping to transfer the science and technology of biofuels and important co-products to economic development in northwest communities.

The NARA will be conducting traditional extension activities, including providing workshops, webinars, and newsletters, with the aim of helping communities and companies throughout the Pacific Northwest determine their role in building a sustainable biofuels infrastructure and moving toward the establishment of a biofuels-based economy, while at the same time forming regional alliances and identifying communities that might fit into the supply chain.

“This project is important because it provides a perfect opportunity to address several critical issues, from decreasing the nation’s dependency on petroleum products to promoting resiliency and economic stability in forest-based communities,” commented Eini Lowell, a research forest products technologist at the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station.

The completed site certificate application has prompted the Department of Energy to ask for comments from various public officials and regulatory agencies. The department also began a 30-day public comment period on July 13 and a public meeting is scheduled for July 27 at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls to discuss the project.

The next step in the process is for the Department of Energy to send their findings and recommendations to the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Council, who would ultimately make a final decision on the project. The company has hopes that construction will begin sometime late this year.

The other proposed plant will also be a $150 million, 40-megawatt facility located near Warm Springs in central Oregon. Both projects, each of which would provide enough electricity to power 35,000 homes, are scheduled to be operating by the end of 2013.

The new plant will use some residual material from a Greenwood Resources sawmill that started up inside the poplar plantation last year. Zeachem President Jim Imbler says that a five-mile radius of trees around a full-scale Zeachem plant could produce 100 million gallons of ethanol annually. While the sawmill will provide some feedstock, additional raw material will come from chipped roundwood.

Biogreen Sustainable Energy Co. is looking to build a new 20 MW plant in La Pine in central Oregon, and has proposed a $60 million facility. Company officials are seeking federal and state tax credits and grants to cover roughly half the cost, with private investors providing the remainder. Several financing options are being considered.

One principal investor is Larry Olson,  owner of H & H Wood Recyclers Inc. in Vancouver, Wash., who’s looking for a consistent customer for biomass material he can’t currently sell. Plans are to have the new facility up and running within three years after air quality permits are acquired in early 2010.

In other Oregon biomass news, the Port of Morrow in eastern Oregon along the Columbia River signed a letter of intent to sell an older, idled biomass electricity plant in Heppner for $4 million to T2 of Sweet Home, Ore., a company that produces hog fuel. The facility produces 10MW and employs 12-15 people when operating. The plant last operated in 2003, adjacent a sawmill that closed in the mid 1990s.

The deal for the plant states that T2 must make power marketing arrangements, comply with state Dept. of Environmental Quality air and water quality divisions and meet Oregon Dept. of Energy requirements.

Proponents of the bill argued that it would add value to the electricity created by the existing facilities, specifically biomass plants operated by struggling wood products companies. Opponents argued that allowing existing power sources to qualify as renewables would reduce the amount of new renewable resources to come onto the market.

Kulongoski agreed that the bill would diminish the value of the renewable portfolio standard, but he pledged to work with proponents of biomass facilities to develop a policy during the next legislative session in February. The governor said he supports expanding the renewable portfolio standard in a way that would account for the existing plants but still promote the development of new resources.