ACTIVISTS EYE NEW FARM BILL CONSERVATION PLAN TO FOSTER RENEWABLES

Environmental and some conservation groups may push for a new Farm Bill program to encourage production of switchgrass and other biomass for use in ethanol as an alternative to proposals a key renewable energy group is considering to use existing agricultural conservation programs to promote biomass. The environmentalists are concerned that the 25x'25 Coalition, which promotes energy independence, is discussing amending the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to promote the use of CRP land to grow and...