Originally published in Law360, New York on October 19, 2012.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture made loan guarantees to three biomass energy projects this month, a quiet reminder that after the political firestorm sparked by the U.S. Department of Energy's renewable financing program, one federal lending window is still open to clean technologies.

The loan guarantees, totaling about $341 million, went to biomass projects in Texas, Colorado and Hawaii. All three will turn wood pellets into fuel, a technology that, while far from science fiction, has yet to make a major dent in the U.S. energy market.

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