New Mexico Legislature considers biomass in renewable energy bill

State legislation that could make it more attractive to produce electricity from biomass, such as forest slash from tree thinning projects, cleared its first committee last week. The Senate Bill would amend New Mexico's Renewable Energy Act by allowing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to be issued for electricity produced from thermal energy derived from biomass materials.

The Renewable Portfolio Standards requires investor-owned utilities to obtain 15 percent of their power from renewable resources, biomass, wind, or solar, by 2015. The amount will increase to 20 percent by 2020.