Loan Program Aims For Wood Processing Facilities To Help Reduce Wildfire Threats
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack has unveiled a new program to support American wood processing facilities, through a partnership with the USDA Rural Development and the USDA Forest Service to provide funding through the Timber Production Expansion Guaranteed Loan Program (TPEP). The program will support the processing and utilization of wood products from National Forest System lands to improve forest health and reduce the risk posed by wildfires, insects, and disease and the detrimental impacts they have on communities and critical infrastructure.
This program is funded through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It also reflects the goals of the President’s Investing in America agenda to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and middle out, and to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure.
Secretary Vilsack explains, “Under the leadership of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA Rural Development is partnering with the Forest Service to support timber industry innovations that improve forest health and reduce wildfire threats while creating good-paying jobs for people in rural, forest-dependent communities.”
Through TPEP, $220 million will be made available in loan guarantees for borrowers to establish, reopen, retrofit, expand, or improve wood processing facilities, sawmills and paper mills, that use trees harvested from federal or Tribal lands. The program is designed to manage up to 20 million acres of national forests managed by the FS and complement the FS’s 10-year Wildfire Crisis Strategy.
USDA Rural Development will begin accepting TPEP applications on December 26, 2024, with a maximum loan amount of $25 million. USDA encourages applicants to use the TPEP Dashboard to find areas identified as high or very high priority areas to address the risk of wildfires and insect infestations or disease, which have caused or have the potential to cause significant damage.
Applicants may learn more through the upcoming TPEP webinar, scheduled for January 6, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. ET. Visit https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_esofN0XPSi2AIEyt8pu74g#/registration.
Applicants are encouraged to consider projects that will advance the following key priorities: Reducing climate pollution and increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change through economic support to rural communities; ensuring all rural residents have equitable access to USDA Rural Development programs and benefits from Rural Development-funded projects; and assisting rural communities recover economically through more and better market opportunities and through improved infrastructure.
TPEP will be administered through the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative program, visit https://www.rd.usda.gov/onerdguarantee.
Latest news
UK Biomass Demand Rises; Enviva Reports New Japanese Contract
In its second quarter financial report, major industrial wood pellet producer Enviva refers to recent research conducted by Imperial College London and Drax that says biomass accounted for 11% of the United Kingdom’s power generation in 2020, the highest of any country in the world. Citing conversion…
Arbaflame Says It’s Ready To Roll
Arbaflame reports it is ready to start up the company’s first commercial full-scale factory in Kongsvinger, Norway. Arbaflame has developed patented wood pellets, which it says will replace coal and cut C02 emissions by 90%. In addition, it will produce valuable biochemicals…
Westervelt Sells Pellet Interests
Drax is acquiring Westervelt’s 20% minority interest in Alabama Pellets, LLC—the joint venture that owns pellet plants in Demopolis and Aliceville, Ala.—for $29.7 million. The acquisition increases Drax’s interest in Alabama Pellets to 90% and…
ReGenerate Purchases Biomass Power Facility
ReGenerate Energy Holdings, LLC , the recently formed joint venture between Ember Infrastructure and ReEnergy Biomass Operations LLC, has completed the acquisition of Albany Green Energy, a biomass heat-and-power facility located in Albany, Ga. from a subsidiary of Exelon Generation Co. LLC…
Find Us On Social
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Wood Bioenergy News Online hits the inboxes of subscribers in the wood-to-energy sectors.
Subscribe/Renew
Wood Bioenergy is published and delivered worldwide 6 times per year. Free to qualified readers in the U.S. Subscribers outside the U.S. are asked to pay a small fee.
Advertise
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.