# Consumer Preferences for Wood-Pellet-Based Green Pricing Programs in the Eastern United States
## 1 Introduction
The fact that more than 80% of the forest resources in eastern US are privately owned acts as an additional barrier to the suitability of creating markets for woody biomass products [18; 19]. The lack of support for evaluating the benefits of biomass is likely due to market failure, a lack of incentives, the strong markets for carbon, and a lack of information which could influence private landowners to participate in woody biomass energy generation [18]. Since the wood pellet industry has been largely influenced by export prices, it is not entirely understood how wood pellet consumption in the US would be valued. Owing to these uncertainties, it is important to understand how energy consumers would accept and value co-firing biomass with coal as a portion of the electricity provider's energy generation mix. The resulting information will be critical in developing biomass supply chains that support private landowners while promoting sustainable energy generation and enhancing consumer participation in the energy market. Exploring potential supporting policies that can assist and incentivize coal plants to adopt co-firing is critical to the understanding of biomass green pricing program (GPP) viability. Production Tax Credit (PTC) is a federal tax incentive that allows up to USD 0.012 per Kwh of electricity generation in coal plants to be from biomass [15]. Despite this incentive, only 7.14% of the existing coal plants apply co-firing technologies as the PTC does not clearly specify co-firing guidelines [15; 20], which underscores the importance of conducting further investigations into the low adoption rates of co-firing technology. Further, governmental intervention is required to make biomass co-firing economically attractive; we propose incorporating green pricing mechanisms to gain public support and increase the economic viability of co-firing plants. Some US regions have developed legislation that mandates utility providers to offer GPPs to energy customers [21]. GPPs provide energy customers with the option to pay a premium on their energy bill so that a portion of their energy is generated from renewable sources. This premium covers the cost of any above-market renewable energy used and is based on the cost per kWh of green energy purchased by the energy consumer [21]. In most instances, the premium supports the development of renewables within the customer's local grid. In other cases, the premium may support renewable energy in the future [21; 22]. GPPs are often associated with tax credit programs; when a customer pays a premium to increase renewable energy generation, they may be eligible for a tax credit per kWh of energy supported. These tax credit programs can offset upfront costs by 10 to 30% [22]. Hence, these programs allow energy providers to increase renewable energy generation and enable energy consumers to invest in renewable energy [22]. Correspondingly, renewable energy certificates (RECs) can be purchased from the energy provider, acting as a proof of credit for renewable energy delivery to the grid [23]. RECs are market instruments used to promote the environmental, social, and non-power attributes of renewable energy generation [24]. A REC is one megawatt-hour (MWh) of renewable energy electricity delivered to the electric grid [24]. RECs are used by energy providers to meet state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) [24]. Other options available in the US deal with purchasing green energy from an alternate electricity supplier. These options depend primarily on the location of the electricity consumer and their access to alternate green energy grids. Examples include community choice aggregations (CCA) and community solar where communities collectively subscribe to a green power option as a bulk purchaser [25]. Many GPPs available throughout the US are provided by utility and third-party suppliers. Despite their availability, residential participation in GPPs is relatively low, particularly in the bioenergy sector of renewable energy [22; 24].