Four industry seats on federal biomass commission shape policy for public lands
H.R. 5597 — BECCS Advancement Commission Act of 2025 · Filed by Blake Moore (R-UT) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 26, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill creates a temporary federal commission within the Department of Agriculture to study and recommend policies for expanding bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) — a technology that burns biomass for energy while capturing and storing the resulting carbon dioxide. The commission will include federal officials, state representatives, timber industry representatives, and four seats explicitly reserved for the BECCS industry itself, and will report to Congress within one year on how to accelerate BECCS deployment, streamline biomass contracts from federal lands, and support the industry's growth.
Why we flagged it
The bill establishes a temporary study commission ostensibly focused on forest health and clean energy, but its operative structure reserves four of nine voting seats for BECCS industry representatives, giving the industry direct influence over federal policy recommendations affecting biomass contracts on public lands.
What the text implies
- The commission's recommendations on 'streamlined biomass offtake contracts' and 'interagency coordination' may result in regulatory changes that favor BECCS companies' access to federal timber without requiring full environmental review or competitive bidding.
- Four industry seats on a nine-member commission (44% of voting power) gives BECCS firms direct influence over metrics and policy recommendations that will shape federal land-use decisions affecting millions of acres.
- The commission's focus on 'meeting energy demands of artificial intelligence infrastructure and data centers' suggests the bill may be positioning BECCS as a solution for energy-intensive tech industries, potentially subsidizing their power costs through federal biomass policy.
- The 180-day termination clause means the commission dissolves immediately after submitting its report, eliminating ongoing oversight or accountability for whether its recommendations are actually implemented or effective.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates a study commission with potential public benefits (forest health, wildfire mitigation, clean energy research), but the commission's membership is heavily weighted toward industry insiders — four of nine voting seats go directly to BECCS companies — which may bias recommendations toward industry expansion over independent analysis. The commission terminates after one report, limiting its accountability.
Who stands to gain
- BECCS technology companies and operators
- Commercial timber industry
- Biomass energy producers
- Data center and AI infrastructure operators (potential indirect beneficiaries)
Named in the bill
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office, National Association of State Foresters, National Association of State Energy Officials, BECCS industry, Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Sep 26, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 26, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources and House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Science, Space, and…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $320,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Blake Moore, the sponsor, reported $1,475,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, Inc. — $260,000 on 1 filing
- Drax Group — $60,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (9,266 characters) on Aug 18, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Four industry seats on federal biomass commission shape policy for public lands” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr5597 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.