Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., on Friday introduced a bill that would change language in the 2007 energy bill to allow wood waste from national forests to count toward the Renewable Fuels Standard in the energy bill.

In a last-minute change, the final version of the energy bill enacted in December contained a definition of "renewable biomass" that excludes any material removed from national forests.

The definition means cellulosic ethanol derived from wood chips and other wood waste from national forests does not count toward the renewable-fuels standard.

The result is that fuel blenders and refiners have no incentive or requirement to buy biofuel made in the Black Hills area under the new fuels standard, according to a news release from Thune's office.

Thune, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., all expressed dismay about the last-minute change to the energy bill. Herseth Sandlin said Monday at a meeting about the issue that the energy bill's biomass definition would hurt local efforts to turn wood waste into ethanol.

Thune said his new legislation would change the definition of "renewable biomass" to more closely conform to earlier versions of the Renewable Fuels Standard and the Senate-passed 2007 Farm Bill. The legislation would allow pre-commercial and post-commercial waste from national forests to be eligible feedstocks under the definition of "renewable biomass." The biomass material must be removed in a sustainable manner and in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws such as the Healthy Forests Act of 2003, Thune said.

The Senate-passed farm bill includes incentives for the production of cellulosic ethanol based on this definition of renewable biomass. The incentives include grants and loan guarantees for cellulosic ethanol plants and provisions of the Biofuels Innovation Program, according to the news release.

"To exclude slash piles and other wastes from within our national forests to be counted towards the Renewable Fuels Standard simply makes no sense," Thune said in the news release. "My legislation will allow national forests like South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest to be used in a more sustainable manner that will help improve our economy, our environment and our national energy needs."

According to a 2005 study by the federal agriculture and energy departments, about 2 billion tons of treatable biomass on federal forestland is available for bioenergy production. A significant portion of this biomass could be removed annually on a sustainable basis, according to Thune's news release. The estimate does not include post-commercial waste such as wood chips from paper mills.