MBioEX Discussed in the Line Media and Tech.mn
Getting a little behind in posting articles written about us, but here are two of the most recent:
8/11/2010 our second article written by Dan Haugen at The Line Media.
and
8/6/2010 article written by Jeff Pesek at TECHdotMN.
More BCAP Reports
In anticipation of a new BCAP rule, we have released several new reports showing Phase I activity. Find the reports here: http://www.mbioex.com/bcap/reports.
BCAP – Phase 2 Getting Closer
Forest2Market reports in its August 2010 e-newsletter that the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) may start up again for phase 2 operations in late 2010. The final rule may be out within 3 weeks and there may be a 60 day review period following its release. That puts the start date around November 2010. Please take this with a grain of salt since nothing is definitive. However, it does appear as if progress is being made behind the scenes.
Please also be sure to check out the Forest2Market e-newsletter piece which you can reference here:
http://www.forest2market.com/f2m/us/f2m1/free/forest2fuel-archive/story/2010-Aug-BCAP
Added Demand Side Listings (aka Want Ads)
A few days ago we added demand side listings. Now you can add both supply and demand side listings to allow for better matching. Let us know what you think!
We were also in a bug fixing mood and fixed many bugs throughout the interface.
Newsletter Archive Page Up
View all archived e-newsletters here.
ELPC Briefs Washington on BCAP’s New Energy Crop Program
The Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) briefed some House and Senate staff individuals this week in Washington D.C. The full article is here: http://farmenergy.org/news/elpc-holds-washington-briefings-on-new-energy-crop-program.
I enjoyed checking out the BCAP presentations at the bottom of the article from National Wildlife Federation, Anna Rath, Show Me Energy Cooperative and University of Illinois. Overall the presentations show support for the program continuing, albeit with new rules.
Still no word on when BCAP will start back up again, though.
Featured in the Line Media
Check out a new Minneapolis Biomass Exchange article just released by the line media!
Software Release
New Software released. Features include:
Navigation – New links have been added to ‘BCAP Tools’ and ‘About Us’. You can now more easily find your way around the site, including finding the MBioEX web blog and Twitter feed.
Distance Measured from your Zip/Postal Code - You can now choose any zip/postal code in the United States or Canada and the listings will be measured from that point. As listings grow, it’s a great way to check out other biomass pockets.
Sorting – Sorting is now much improved. You can sort by every column in the listing table.
Subscriptions – You can now let us know the type of information you want – BCAP, contracts, software upgrades – and we’ll send you an alert when that information is updated. You can also receive alerts as new supply is added to the exchange. If you have an account, just sign in and go to your user profile to see the subscriptions option.
Software Release
You can now copy previously-created listings to speed up the process of adding more listings.
BCAP Proposed Rule
The BCAP Proposed Rule was released in early February: BCAP Proposed Rule
If you would like to submit comments to the proposed rule, they need to be sent by April 9, 2010 at midnight Eastern Daylight Time. To submit comments, go to www.regulations.gov and search for “Biomass Crop Assistance Program” or try the direct link provided here.
Below, you can find several web links with BCAP proposed rule summaries to help you digest the proposed rule, presented in alphabetical order. You may notice that most proposal summaries come from wood industry websites. I did look for a few links from more traditional agricultural industries but did not find much.
Biomass Intel – http://www.biomassintel.com/summary-of-usdas-proposed-biomass-crop-assistance-program-rules/
Biomass Magazine – http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3475
FarmEnergy.org – http://farmenergy.org/news/usda-releases-long-awaited-biomass-crop-proposal
Forest2Market (F2M) – http://www.forest2market.com/f2m/us/f2m1/free/forest2fuel-archive/story/2010-Feb-BCAP-Suspended
Pallet Enterprise – http://www.palletenterprise.com/articledatabase/view.asp?articleID=3043
RISI Wood Biomass Markets – http://www.woodbiomass.com/news/wood/news/RISI-ECONOMISTS-Draft-BCAP-rule-angles-to-protect-higher-value-wood-markets.html
Wisconsin’s Bioenergy Initiative – http://www.wbi.wisc.edu/policy-analysis/biomass-crop-assistance-program-critical-to-growing-our-bioeconomy-new-administrative-rules-issued/