§ 1424.7 - Gross payable units.

§ 1424.7 Gross payable units.

(a) For ethanol, producers will be eligible for payments on gross payable units for only their ethanol production from eligible inputs that exceeds, for the program year to date, their total comparable production at all locations as compared to the comparable portion of the previous year. Producers of ethanol are not eligible for base production payments. Producers shall not be paid twice for the same increase and any decline in relative production between quarters will require a comparable refund. For example, if at the end of the first quarter, a producer were to be paid for an increase of 500 gallons of ethanol, but at the end of the second quarter, that producer's year-to-date production was down to a net increase for the year of 450 gallons, then a refund would be due for the loss of the corresponding 50 gallons of net extra production. Repayment rates shall be based on previous payment rates. Unless otherwise determined by CCC, the extra ethanol production from eligible inputs will be converted to gross payable units by dividing the gallons of increased ethanol by the applicable conversion factor.

(b) Biodiesel producers will be eligible for payments on gross payable units for all biodiesel production from eligible inputs. For eligibility purposes there will be two kinds of payment: additional production payments (APP), and base production payments (BPP). Repayment rates shall be based on previous payment rates. Unless otherwise determined by CCC, gross payable units for biodiesel production from eligible inputs will be calculated as follows:

(1) For APP, by dividing the gallons of increased biodiesel by the biodiesel conversion factor of 1.4. APP payments will be made on increases as compared with the previous FY. Producers will not be paid twice for the same production. Failure to maintain year to date biodiesel production increases between quarters will require a comparable APP refund as specified below. That is, for example, if a producer were to be paid, at the end of the first quarter, for 500 gallons of increased biodiesel production, but by the end of the second quarter that producer's production, for the year to date, was only 450 gallons, then a refund of the APP premium would be due for the loss of the corresponding 50 gallons of net production increase.

(2) For BPP, which will be made on production not eligible for the APP, by dividing the base production by the biodiesel conversion factor of 1.4 and multiplying the result by 0.5 in FY 2003, 0.3 in FY 2004, 0.15 in FY 2005, or 0.0 (zero) in FY 2006 to determine base biodiesel production gross payable units.

(3) Adding the APP and BPP to determine biodiesel gross payable units.

(c) There shall only be one eligible producer per plant location.

(1) When producers move production from one plant to another between FY's, the prior FY's production for the producer for program payment calculations tied to increases in production shall be the greater of:

(i) The production at the plant operated by the producer in the prior FY, or

(ii) The production in the prior FY at the plant being taken over by the producer in the current FY.

(2) New producers who are taking over a plant with prior bioenergy production shall assume that production history for program purposes. For example: in FY 2002, Producer A produced 1,000 gallons of bioenergy in plant 1 and Producer B produced 500,000 of bioenergy in plant 2. In FY 2003, Producer A assumes operation of plant 2; Producer B moves to plant 3, which was not in the program in FY 2002, but with FY 2002 production of 400,000 gallons from eligible commodities; and Producer C assumes operations of plant 1. In FY 2003, for program purposes solely based on these respective plants, Producer A would have a prior FY production of 500,000 gallons; Producer B would have a prior FY production of 500,000 gallons; and Producer C would have a prior FY production of 1,000 gallons. These examples would apply when a producer moves its entire operation from one plant to another. Otherwise, for purposes of computing whether a producer has increased production in the current year from the previous year, the determination will be made by comparing for the current year the producer's production figures from all locations in which the producer has an interest with, for the previous year, the sum of:

(i) Production at those locations by any person including, but not limited to, the producer, and

(ii) Additional production by the producer at any other location in that year.

(3) Also, as needed to avoid frustrating the goals of the program, the Executive Vice President of CCC may treat producers with common interests, common ownership, or common facilities or arrangements as the same producer.