II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2987 

To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to improve 

biorefinery, renewable chemical, and biobased product manufacturing assistance, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 28 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 22), 2023 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself and Mr. MORAN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act 

of 2002 to improve biorefinery, renewable chemical, and 

biobased product manufacturing assistance, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Agricultural Bio5 refinery Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2023’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. BIOREFINERY, RENEWABLE CHEMICAL, AND 

2 BIOBASED PRODUCT MANUFACTURING AS3 SISTANCE. 

4 Section 9003 of the Farm Security and Rural Invest5 ment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8103) is amended— 

6 (1) in subsection (a), in the matter preceding 

7 paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘to assist’’ and inserting 

8 ‘‘to develop advanced biofuels (which, for purposes 

9 of this section, shall include ultra-low-carbon bioeth10 anol and zero-carbon bioethanol), renewable chemi11 cals, and biobased product manufacturing and as12 sist’’; 

13 (2) in subsection (b)(1)— 

14 (A) by striking ‘‘technologically new’’; and 

15 (B) by striking ‘‘end-user products’’ and 

16 inserting ‘‘end-user products, renewable chemi17 cals, and biobased products’’; 

18 (3) in subsection (c)— 

19 (A) by striking ‘‘The Secretary shall make 

20 available to eligible entities guarantees’’ and in21 serting the following: ‘‘Subject to the avail22 ability of funding, the Secretary shall make 

23 available to eligible entities— 

24 ‘‘(1) on a year-round basis, guarantees’’; 


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1 (B) in paragraph (1) (as so designated), by 

2 striking the period at the end and inserting ‘‘, 

3 in accordance with subsection (d); and’’; and 

4 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘(2) grants, on a competitive basis, to develop, 

6 construct, or retrofit pilot or demonstration-scale 

7 biorefineries to demonstrate the commercial viability 

8 of 1 or more processes for converting renewable bio9 mass to advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals, and 

10 biobased products in accordance with subsection 

11 (e).’’; 

12 (4) in subsection (d)— 

13 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

14 (i) by striking subparagraphs (A) and 

15 (C); 

16 (ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 

17 (B) and (D) as subparagraphs (A) and 

18 (B), respectively; 

19 (iii) in subparagraph (A) (as so redes20 ignated)— 

21 (I) by striking ‘‘In approving a 

22 loan guarantee application’’ and in23 serting the following: 


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1 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In approving an 

2 application for a loan guarantee under sub3 section (c)(1)’’; and 

4 (II) by adding at the end the fol5 lowing: 

6 ‘‘(ii) WAIVER.—The Secretary may 

7 waive the feasibility study under clause (i) 

8 for proven or otherwise commercially avail9 able technologies.’’; and 

10 (iv) in subparagraph (B) (as so redes11 ignated), by striking ‘‘loan guarantee ap12 plications’’ and inserting ‘‘applications for 

13 loan guarantees under subsection (c)(1)’’; 

14 and 

15 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

16 (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

17 ‘‘$250,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘10 percent 

18 of the total amount made available under 

19 subsection (g) for the fiscal year in which 

20 the loan is guaranteed;’’; and 

21 (ii) by striking ‘‘subsection (c)’’ each 

22 place it appears and inserting ‘‘subsection 

23 (c)(1)’’; 

24 (5) by redesignating subsection (e) as sub25 section (k); 


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1 (6) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol2 lowing: 

3 ‘‘(e) GRANTS.— 

4 ‘‘(1) SELECTION CRITERIA.— 

5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In approving applica6 tions for grants under subsection (c)(2), the 

7 Secretary shall establish a priority scoring sys8 tem that assigns priority scores to each applica9 tion and only approve applications that exceed 

10 a specified minimum score, as determined by 

11 the Secretary. 

12 ‘‘(B) FEASIBILITY.— 

13 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In approving an 

14 application for a grant under subsection 

15 (c)(2), the Secretary shall determine the 

16 technical and economic feasibility of the 

17 project based on a feasibility study of the 

18 project described in the application con19 ducted by an independent third party. 

20 ‘‘(ii) WAIVER.—The Secretary may 

21 waive the feasibility study under clause (i) 

22 for proven or otherwise commercially avail23 able technologies. 

24 ‘‘(C) SCORING SYSTEM.—The priority scor25 ing system established under subparagraph (A) 


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1 shall consider, with respect to a project pro2 posed in an application for a grant under sub3 section (c)(2)— 

4 ‘‘(i) the potential market for the ad5 vanced biofuel, renewable chemical, or 

6 biobased product, and the byproducts pro7 duced under the project; 

8 ‘‘(ii) the level of financial participation 

9 by the eligible entity, including support 

10 from non-Federal and private sources; 

11 ‘‘(iii) whether the eligible entity is 

12 proposing to use— 

13 ‘‘(I) a feedstock not previously 

14 used in the production of advanced 

15 biofuels; or 

16 ‘‘(II) a feedstock, process, or 

17 technology in an innovative manner in 

18 the production of renewable chemicals 

19 or biobased products; 

20 ‘‘(iv) whether the eligible entity is pro21 posing to work with producer associations 

22 or cooperatives; 

23 ‘‘(v) whether the eligible entity has es24 tablished that the adoption of the process 

25 proposed in the application will have a 


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1 positive impact on resource conservation, 

2 public health, and the environment; 

3 ‘‘(vi) the potential for rural economic 

4 development; 

5 ‘‘(vii) whether the project can be rep6 licated; 

7 ‘‘(viii) scalability for commercial use; 

8 and 

9 ‘‘(ix) in the case of an advanced 

10 biofuels project, the contribution of the 

11 project to domestic energy security. 

12 ‘‘(2) COST SHARING.— 

13 ‘‘(A) LIMITS.—The amount of a grant 

14 awarded under subsection (c)(2) shall not ex15 ceed an amount that is 60 percent of the cost 

16 of the project carried out using the grant. 

17 ‘‘(B) NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—The non18 Federal share of the cost of a project may be 

19 provided in the form of cash or material, sub20 ject to the condition that the material provided 

21 does not exceed 30 percent of the non-Federal 

22 share.’’; 

23 (7) in subsection (g)— 

24 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

25 (i) in subparagraph (A)— 


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1 (I) in the matter preceding clause 

2 (i), by inserting ‘‘and grants’’ after 

3 ‘‘loan guarantees’’; 

4 (II) in clause (iii), by striking 

5 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

6 (III) in clause (iv), by striking 

7 the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 

8 and’’; and 

9 (IV) by adding at the end the fol10 lowing: 

11 ‘‘(v) $40,000,000 for each of fiscal 

12 years 2024 through 2028.’’; and 

13 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 

14 ‘‘Of the total’’ and all that follows through 

15 ‘‘subparagraph (A)’’ and inserting ‘‘Of the 

16 total amount of funds made available for 

17 each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028 

18 under subparagraph (A)’’; and 

19 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘2023’’ 

20 and inserting ‘‘2028’’; 

21 (8) in subsection (h)(1), by striking ‘‘sub22 sections (a) through (e), and (g)’’ and inserting 

23 ‘‘subsections (a) through (e), (g), and (k)’’; 


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1 (9) in subsection (i)(1), by striking ‘‘subsections 

2 (a) through (e) and subsection (g)’’ and inserting 

3 ‘‘subsections (a) through (e), (g), and (k)’’; and 

4 (10) in subsection (j)(1), by striking ‘‘sub5 sections (a) through (e) and (g)’’ and inserting 

6 ‘‘subsections (a) through (e), (g), and (k)’’. 

Æ 


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