Sec. 22.002. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Co-firing biomass" means a solid fuel that:

(A) contains qualified agricultural biomass;

(B) is produced by a renewable biomass aggregator and bio-coal fuel producer; and

(C) is used to supplement coal combustion for the generation of electricity.

(1-a) "Diverter":

(A) means:

(i) a person or facility that qualifies for an exemption under Section 361.111 or 363.006, Health and Safety Code;

(ii) a handler of nonhazardous industrial waste that is registered or permitted under Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code;

(iii) a facility that separates recyclable materials from a municipal solid waste stream and that is registered or permitted under Chapter 363, Health and Safety Code, as a municipal solid waste management facility; or

(iv) a renewable biomass aggregator and bio-coal fuel producer that operates an integrated harvesting, transportation, and solid biofuel conversion facility for qualified agricultural biomass; and

(B) does not include a facility that uses biomass to generate electric energy.

(2) "Farmer" means the owner or operator of an agricultural facility that produces qualified agricultural biomass.

(3) "Forest wood waste" includes residual tops and limbs of trees, unused cull trees, pre-commercial thinnings, and wood or debris from noncommercial tree species, slash, or brush.

(4) "Logger" means a harvester of forest wood waste, regardless of whether the harvesting occurs as a part of the harvesting of merchantable timber.

(5) "Qualified agricultural biomass" means:

(A) agricultural residues that are of a type that historically have been disposed of in a landfill, relocated from their point of origin and stored in a manner not intended to enhance or restore the soil, burned in open fields in the area from which they are derived, or burned in fields and orchards that continue to be used for the production of agricultural goods, and includes:

(i) field or seed crop residues, including straw from rice or wheat, cotton gin trash, corn stover, grain sorghum (milo) harvest residues, sugarcane bagasse, and switchgrass;

(ii) fruit or nut crop residues, including orchard or vineyard prunings and removals;

(iii) forest wood waste or urban wood waste, including state designated forest management cuttings and brush management cuttings from private lands; and

(iv) agricultural livestock waste nutrients; and

(B) a crop grown and used specifically for its energy generation value, including a crop consisting of a fast-growing tree species.

(5-a) "Renewable biomass aggregator and bio-coal fuel producer" means an operator of an integrated harvesting, transportation, and fuel conversion facility that aggregates qualified agricultural or forest biomass and produces renewable fuel suitable for replacing coal or co-firing with coal.

(6) "Storm-generated biomass debris" means biomass-based residues that result from a natural weather event, including a hurricane, tornado, or flood, that would otherwise be disposed of in a landfill or burned in the open. The term includes:

(A) trees, brush, and other vegetative matter that have been damaged or felled by severe weather but that would not otherwise qualify as forest wood waste; and

(B) clean solid wood waste that has been damaged by severe weather but that would not otherwise qualify as urban wood waste.

(7) "Urban wood waste" means:

(A) solid wood waste material, other than pressure-treated, chemically treated, or painted wood waste, that is free of rubber, plastic, glass, nails, or other inorganic material; and

(B) landscape or right-of-way trimmings.

Added by Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1013 (H.B. 1090), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2007.

Amended by:

Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1196 (H.B. 4031), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2009.