The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the rice industry has led many other commodity groups in developing alternatives to open-field burning. In order to aid in the continuation of this role of leadership within the agricultural industry and to enable the transition to a free-market utilization of biomass, funds are needed to provide grants to persons that utilize agricultural biomass and rice straw.

(Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 1017, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2001.)