I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1731
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that the credit
for electricity produced from certain renewable resources shall apply
to electricity produced from all biomass facilities and to extend the
placed in service deadline for such credit.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 6, 1999
Mr. HERGER (for himself, Mr. MATSUI, Mr. MCCRERY, Mr. CAMP, Mr.
FOLEY, Mr. WELLER, Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts, and Mr. THOMAS) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways
and Means
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide
that the credit for electricity produced from certain re-
newable resources shall apply to electricity produced from
all biomass facilities and to extend the placed in service
deadline for such credit.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Biomass Energy Eq-
uity Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. MODIFICATIONS TO CREDIT FOR ELECTRICITY
PRODUCED FROM RENEWABLE RESOURCES.
(a) QUALIFIED FACILITIES INCLUDE ALL BIOMASS
FACILITIES.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (B) of section
45(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (re-
lating to credit for electricity produced from certain
renewable resources) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(B) biomass.’’
(2) BIOMASS DEFINED.—Paragraph (2) of sec-
tion 45(c) of such Code is amended to read as fol-
lows:
‘‘(2) BIOMASS.—The term ‘biomass’ means—
‘‘(A) any organic material from a plant
which is planted exclusively for purposes of
being used at a qualified facility to produce
electricity, or
‘‘(B) any solid, nonhazardous, cellulosic
waste material, which is segregated from other
waste materials, and which is derived from—
‘‘(i) any of the following forest-related
resources: mill residues, precommercial
thinnings, slash and brush, but not includ-
ing old-growth timber,
‘‘(ii) 
waste 
pallets, 
crates 
and
dunnage, manufacturing and construction
wood wastes (but not including pressure-
treated, chemically treated, or painted
wood wastes), and landscape or right-of-
way tree trimmings, but not including un-
segregated municipal solid waste (gar-
bage),
‘‘(iii) agriculture sources, including or-
chard tree crops, vineyard, grain, legumes,
sugar, and other crop byproducts or resi-
dues, or
‘‘(iv) poultry waste.’’.
(b) EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF PLACED-IN-
SERVICE RULES.—Paragraph (3) of section 45(c) of such
Code is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(3) QUALIFIED FACILITY.—
‘‘(A) WIND FACILITIES.—In the case of a
facility using wind to produce electricity, the
term ‘qualified facility’ means any facility
owned by the taxpayer which is originally
placed in service after December 31, 1993, and
before July 1, 2009.
‘‘(B) BIOMASS FACILITIES.—In the case of
a facility using biomass to produce electricity,
the term ‘qualified facility’ means, with respect
to any month, any facility owned or leased by
the taxpayer which is originally placed in serv-
ice before July 1, 2009, if, for such month, bio-
mass comprises not less than 75 percent (on a
Btu basis) of the average monthly fuel input of
the facility for the taxable year which includes
such month.
‘‘(C) SPECIAL RULES.—In the case of a
qualified facility described in subparagraph
(B)—
‘‘(i) the 10-year period referred to in
subsection (a) shall be treated as beginning
no earlier than the date of the enactment
of this paragraph, and
‘‘(ii) subsection (b)(3) shall not apply
to any such facility originally placed in
service before January 1, 1997.’’.
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
this section shall apply to electricity produced after the
date of the enactment of this Act.
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