CORINTH, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Maine's growing wood pellet industry has sparked the interest of some top officials with the United States Department of Agriculture.
Dallas Tonsager, the USDA Under Secretary of Rural Development got a tour of the Corinth Wood Pellets plant today from President and CEO George Soffron.
Prior to the tour Tonsager had a rountable discussion with Soffron and the heads of Maine's three other wood pellet manufacturers.
They pressed him about what they see as a bias in Washington towards wood biofuels when it comes to subsidies.
Tonsager did offer assurances that the USDA will help to grow the industry.
"I think there's some things we can do," said Tonsager. "We finance about one fourth of the homes in Maine and so we'll work with homeowners who might be interested in the equipment as we go along so that may be our piece of this. We may be able to finance the distribution system that they want to develop. My agency is equipped to do those kinds of ventures."
The USDA says it has provided about $1.4 million in subsidies so far to Maines four wood pellet manufacturers.
According to federal data, subsidies for wood biomass are far smaller than they are for other bio-fuels such as ethanol, but the public consumption of those fuels is also far smaller.
NEWS CENTER