BIO, Member Companies Ask Congress to Reauthorize Section 9003 Program in Farm Bill

October 19, 2017

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and 66 renewable
chemical producers today asked leaders of the House and Senate
Committees on Agriculture to reauthorize the Farm Bill’s Biorefinery,
Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Manufacturing Assistance Program
(Section 9003). BIO and its members also asked that Congress “fully and
unconditionally allow renewable chemical standalone manufacturing
facilities” to receive Section 9003 Program loan guarantees without
requiring production of advanced biofuels and irrespective of advanced
biofuels feedstocks.

The letter explains, “Renewable chemicals can also generate a high value
relative to transportation fuels, which will provide economic stability
for the construction of the entire biorefinery. Therefore, these
renewable chemical standalone manufacturing facilities need to be
constructed first and operated with innovative technologies to build the
economic value to support advanced biofuels, which is a component in the
biorefinery.”

BIO and the renewable chemical companies add, “Several renewable
chemical startups and mature chemical companies are waiting to build
their first-of-a-kind manufacturing facilities in the United States from
homegrown biomass and technologies and will do so with the proper
federal policy support. These renewable chemical manufacturing
facilities will pay strong dividends in the future of U.S. chemical
manufacturing and, in turn, they will improve the trade balance,
maintain U.S. leadership in renewable energy and manufacturing, create
thousands of high quality U.S. jobs, provide value-added crop for
products, and reduce dependence on foreign oil.”

The letter concludes, “We respectfully request that the Committee
strongly consider these recommendations and work to ensure standalone
renewable chemical advanced manufacturing facilities technologies are
not restricted in reaching full commercial scale, nor impeded by the
need to produce any level of advanced biofuels. Moreover, we urge your
Committees to provide stable mandatory funding for all the core energy
title programs that will continue the development of biorefineries,
positively impacting the biobased economy and creating thousands of
rural jobs.”

About BIO

BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology
companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and
related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other
nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of
innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental
biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO
International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the
biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and
partnering meetings held around the world. BIOtechNOW
is BIO's blog chronicling “innovations transforming our world” and the
BIO Newsletter is the organization’s bi-weekly email newsletter. Subscribe
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