The new energy bill that President Bush signed into law at the end of December already needs a fix.

H.R. 6 has lots of good news for the ethanol industry in South Dakota, with its policies that promote the increased use of that biofuel in our nation's gasoline supply. But it also contains at least one policy provision that is disappointing to people who hope to increase the production of cellulosic ethanol.

Late in the legislation-making process, the federal energy bill was changed to discourage the use of wood chips, tree limbs, slash piles and other wood wastes from national forests - including the Black Hills National Forest - by bio-refineries that would use those feedstocks to make ethanol. The energy bill now excludes ethanol derived from materials collected on national forests from being counted toward our new ethanol-usage mandate and the financial incentives that go along with that.

Since one of the stated goals of our new national energy policy is to be producing 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022 - and since 21 billion of those gallons is supposed to come from biomass materials other than corn - that seems like bad public policy to us.

Often, the making of laws, like the making of sausage, is something best done out of public view. Still, we'd love to have the Democratic leadership explain how that particular provision got included so late in the game.

It deprives the forestry products industry in the Black Hills of an important secondary market for its wood wastes. Without a designation as "renewable biomass," BHNF wood waste offers no incentive for ethanol blenders and refiners to purchase it as a source of fuel.

We think Congress needs to fix that flaw in the energy bill, and so does Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Her legislative director is weighing the congressional options to get that done after Congress reconvenes on Jan. 22, but it likely won't happen without the passage of a new law.

The 2007 Farm Bill, which has yet to emerge from conference committee or be signed into law, does contain better news for cellulosic ethanol supporters in western South Dakota. Both the House and Senate versions contain Sen. John Thune's Biofuels Innovation Program, which does provide incentives for the collection of BHNF wood wastes.

Whether via the Farm Bill, stand-alone legislation, or as an amendment to another bill, we urge Congress to fix this problem. Without a remedy in law, the Black Hills will be deprived of an important economic opportunity.