The bill would exempt leaves, branches and crop waste - even burlap bags.
That was in October 1998, when ethanol from crop wastes seemed to be just around the corner.
The other leading renewable contenders are electricity from the sun or from biomass, including crop wastes.
Nevertheless, the Clinton administration announced in August a long-term effort to triple the energy produced from crop waste and farm products by 2010.
In developing and poor countries, traditional biomass burning is the major source of air pollutants; traditional biomass includes wood, crop waste and dung.
One of the most efficient ways to utilize crop waste and dung for domestic energy is to produce briquettes.
Maersk estimates it could take the crop waste of an area half the size of Denmark to completely power its ships.
Seems to me there is a misnomer implicit in the idea that there is a vast about of crop 'waste' which can be used without upsetting anything.
The furnace burned mainly rice paddy straws, agricultural crop waste, biomass or any kind of dried firewood.
For short-term cooking, rice paddy straws or crop waste was preferred, while long hours of cooking and floor heating needed longer-burning firewood.