Title 7AgricultureRelease 119-73

§2669 Pilot projects for production and marketing of industrial hydrocarbons and alcohols from agricultural commodities and forest products

Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 59— - RURAL FIRE PROTECTION, DEVELOPMENT, AND SMALL FARM RESEARCH AND EDUCATION › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND SMALL FARM RESEARCH AND EDUCATION › § 2669

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must set up and run a pilot program to make and sell industrial hydrocarbons and alcohols from farm crops and forest products. The program will include four pilot projects. The Secretary can guarantee loans up to $15,000,000 for each project to businesses, cooperatives, nonprofits, or individuals. Loans can run up to 20 years and use whatever interest rate the borrower and lender agree on. No loan guarantee is allowed unless research shows the energy in the products and byproducts will be greater than the fossil fuel energy used to make them, and other conditions the Secretary finds needed are met. To keep the projects supplied with crops, the Secretary can sign contracts up to five years that promise a set amount of commodities each year at agreed prices, but not below the commodity’s price support level unless the goods are out of condition, not storable, or sample-grade or lower under USDA rules. The Secretary will provide needed commodities from Commodity Credit Corporation stocks or buy them if funds are provided in appropriation Acts. The Commodity Credit Corporation will carry out the program.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §2669

Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary is authorized and directed to formulate and carry out a pilot program for the production and marketing of industrial hydrocarbons derived from agricultural commodities and forest products for the purpose of stabilizing and expanding the market for such commodities and products and expanding the Nation’s supply of industrial hydrocarbons.
(b)The Secretary shall provide for four pilot projects for the production of industrial hydrocarbons and alcohols from agricultural commodities and forest products by guaranteeing loans, not to exceed $15,000,000 per each such project, to public, private, or cooperative organizations organized for profit or nonprofit, or to individuals for a term not to exceed twenty years at a rate of interest agreed upon by the borrower and lender.
(c)No loan may be guaranteed under this section unless (1) research indicates the total energy content of the products and byproducts to be manufactured by the loan applicant will exceed the total energy input from fossil fuels used in the manufacture of such products and byproducts, and (2) such other conditions as the Secretary deems appropriate to achieve the purposes of this section are met.
(d)In order to assure that the recipients of loans made under this section have a dependable supply of agricultural commodities at a stable price for use in the pilot projects provided for in this section, the Secretary is authorized to enter into long-term contracts, not exceeding five years, with the recipients of such loans. Such contracts shall guarantee the recipients of such loans a specified quantity of agricultural commodities annually at mutually agreed upon prices, but the agricultural commodities shall not be sold under any such contracts at less than the price support level prescribed for the commodity concerned unless the commodities are out of condition, unstorable, or sample-grade or lower, as prescribed in Department of Agriculture standards.
(e)The Secretary shall supply from Commodity Credit Corporation stocks or, to such extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriation Acts, purchase such quantities of agricultural commodities as may be necessary to comply with the terms of agreements entered into under this section.
(f)The provisions of this section shall be carried out through the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective Oct. 1, 1977, see section 1901 of Pub. L. 95–113, set out as an

Effective Date

of 1977 Amendment note under section 1307 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 2669

Title 7Agriculture

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73