Woody biomass utilization policies: State rankings for the U.S.

Most state governments have adopted state programs and laws recently that provide fiscal incentives and non-fiscal supports for renewable energy projects in the hope that they will encourage the establishment of new bioenergy industry and economic growth. This research analyzes the disparity in the strength of state government incentives in the use of woody biomass. A woody biomass policy index was created through scoring and weighting different categories of policies based on the potential effects on site location decisions. Results indicate that as of 2008 Iowa, North Carolina, and Washington provided the strongest incentives, whereas Wyoming, Mississippi, and Virginia offered the weakest support to the bioenergy industry using woody biomass. This index is not only helpful for new business investors in making siting decisions, but also for state policy makers considering new woody biomass relevant legislation to spur the bioenergy industry. ⺠A state woody biomass policy index is created based on the viewpoint of bioenergy investment and woody biomass utilization. ⺠The index is significantly different from the index of number of policies. ⺠The index is insensitive to changes in the method of weighting different category of policies. ⺠The index is significantly correlated with the Green Index, but not with the Tax Climate Index, GDP/capita, and GHG emissions. ⺠There are no regional associations that existed in the rankings.