Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 96— - BIOMASS ENERGY AND ALCOHOL FUELS › § 8802
Defines key words used in the chapter. It gives short meanings for terms people need to understand the rules about making and using fuels from organic material. "Alcohol" means methanol or ethanol made from biomass that can be used as fuel or instead of petroleum products. "Biomass" means organic material from renewable sources (for example crops, farm wastes, wood, animal waste, municipal waste, and aquatic plants); for subchapter I it does not include municipal wastes, and for subchapter III it does not include aquatic plants or municipal wastes. "Biomass fuel" means any gas, liquid, or solid fuel made by converting biomass. "Biomass energy" means either biomass fuel or the energy/steam from burning biomass to make electricity, mechanical power, or industrial heat. "Biomass energy project" means a U.S. facility mainly for making biomass fuel or for burning biomass to produce heat, power, or electricity (including cogeneration). "Btu" means British thermal unit. "Cogeneration" means making electricity or mechanical power together with useful heat or steam used for industry, commercial, heating, or cooling. "Cooperative" means an agricultural association as defined in federal law. "Construction" covers building, buying, converting, expanding, or improving a biomass project, and buying equipment or land for it, but not buying a facility that was already run as a biomass project. "Federal agency" means an executive branch agency. "Financial assistance" means loans, loan guarantees, price guarantees, purchase agreements, or promises to provide these. "Indian tribe" means tribes or similar groups, including Alaska Native villages or corporations recognized by the United States for Indian programs. "Motor fuel" means gasoline, kerosene, and middle distillates (including diesel). "Municipal waste" means organic material (like sewage, sludge, industrial or commercial waste) and mixes with inorganic refuse from municipal collection systems or similar flows, but not agricultural or wood-harvest residues; it also excludes hazardous waste as the Secretary of Energy decides. "Municipal waste energy project" means a U.S. facility mainly for making fuel from municipal waste or burning municipal waste to make steam, heat, power, or electricity, and includes needed transport and processing equipment. "Office of Alcohol Fuels" means the office set up to handle alcohol fuels. "Person" means an individual or many kinds of organizations, including governments and Indian tribes. "State" means the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. "Small scale biomass energy project" means a biomass project expected to make no more than 1,000,000 gallons of ethanol per year or the same energy in other forms.
Full Legal Text
The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
42 U.S.C. § 8802
Title 42 — The Public Health and Welfare
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73