Agricultural Biorefinery Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2025
- Bill Number
- S. 2467
- Origin Chamber
- Senate
- Congress
- 119th Congress, Session 1
- Policy Area
- Agriculture and Food
- Status
- Introduced
- Latest Action
- 2025-07-24: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
- Last Updated
- 2025-12-05T22:01:03Z
AI-Generated Summary
Purpose This legislation amends the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to expand federal support for developing and manufacturing advanced biofuels (including ultra-low-carbon and zero-carbon bioethanol), renewable chemicals, and biobased products. It aims to improve assistance programs for biorefineries and related manufacturing.
Key Provisions
- Loan Guarantees and Grants: Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to provide loan guarantees on a year-round basis and to award competitive grants for pilot or demonstration-scale biorefineries.
- Grant Selection Criteria: Requires a priority scoring system that evaluates market potential, financial participation, innovative use of feedstocks or processes, rural economic development, scalability, environmental impact, and energy security contributions.
- Feasibility Studies: Mandates independent third-party feasibility studies for grants, with waivers available for proven or commercially available technologies.
- Cost Sharing: Limits grants to no more than 60 percent of project costs; non-federal shares may include cash or materials (materials capped at 30 percent of the non-federal share).
- Funding Authorization: Provides $40,000,000 annually for fiscal years 2025 through 2029 for loan guarantees and grants combined.
- Loan Guarantee Limits: Caps individual guarantees at 10 percent of the total funding available in the relevant fiscal year.
Significant Changes to Existing Law
- Expands the program scope beyond advanced biofuels to explicitly include renewable chemicals and biobased products.
- Removes the requirement that projects involve "technologically new" processes.
- Introduces a new grant program alongside existing loan guarantees.
- Extends program authority through fiscal year 2029 (previously ending in 2023).
- Adds flexibility for waivers on feasibility studies and updates application review processes.
Potential Impacts
- Government Agencies: Increases administrative responsibilities for the Department of Agriculture in managing expanded loan guarantees, grants, and scoring systems.
- Citizens and Economy: May support rural economic development, job creation in biorefinery sectors, and increased domestic production of biofuels and biobased materials.
- International Relations: Could indirectly affect trade in renewable energy and agricultural products by boosting U.S. production capacity, though no direct international provisions are included.
Main Stakeholders Affected
- Eligible entities seeking to develop or retrofit biorefineries, such as companies, cooperatives, and producer associations.
- Agricultural producers supplying feedstocks.
- Rural communities benefiting from economic development.
- The Department of Agriculture, which administers the programs.
Notable Legal, Constitutional, or Political Implications The bill operates within existing congressional authority over agriculture and energy policy. It contains no provisions raising apparent constitutional concerns and maintains standard federal grant and loan guarantee mechanisms.
This summary was generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies. Refer to the official source document for the authoritative text.
Sponsor
Cosponsors (1)
Recent Actions
- 2025-07-24: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
- 2025-07-24: Introduced in Senate
Bill Versions
- Agricultural Biorefinery Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2025 — issued 2025-07-24 — PDF (9 pages)