Ethanol Production Incentive

July 09, 2002

Summary

The Department of Agriculture and Commerce offers cash payments to encourage ethanol production plants in Mississippi to use corn and other agriculture and forest resource commodities produced in the state. These payments apply only to ethanol, anhydrous alcohol and wet alcohol fermented and produced at plants in Mississippi. Businesses will receive $0.20 for each gallon of ethanol or anhydrous alcohol produced on or before 6/30/05, or for 10 years after the start of production--whichever is later. For each gallon of wet alcohol produced on or before 6/30/05, or for 10 years after the start of production--whichever is later--businesses will receive a payment in cents per gallon calculated by the formula "alcohol purity in percent divided by five," and rounded to the nearest cent per gallon, but not less than $0.11 per gallon. The producer payments for anhydrous alcohol and wet alcohol under this section may be paid to the original producer. No payments shall be made for production that occurs after 6/30/15. Additional payments will be made to producers of ethanol or wet alcohol in the amount of 1.5 cents/kWh of electricity generated using biomass in a cogeneration facility at an ethanol plant located in the state. These payments will be made only for electricity generated at cogeneration facilities that begin operation by 6/30/05. The payments apply to electricity generated on or before the date 10 years after the producer first qualifies for payment under this subsection. Payments to a single producer may not exceed $6,000,000 per fiscal year, and total payments to all producers may not exceed $37,000,000 per fiscal year.