Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Jefferson City, Missouri yesterday to announce $1 billion in partnerships to support America’s climate-smart farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.

The new Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities opportunity will finance pilot projects that create market opportunities for U.S. agricultural and forestry products that use climate-smart practices and include innovative, cost-effective ways to measure and verify greenhouse gas benefits. USDA is now accepting project applications for fiscal year 2022.

Vilsack says the investment includes climate smart feedstocks for biofuels. “A tremendous challenge coming from President Biden to create an aviation biofuel. 36 billion gallons of drop in aviation fuel so allow our planes to fly. I don’t know about you folks. I kind of get the electric car thing. You know, you get in the car and if by chance the battery runs down, you pull off to the side of the road. You get your cell phone, you call for help. If you’re in an airplane, the battery wears out. How exactly is that going to work? So I think it is important for us to have a biofuel as we transition to the next iteration of transportation fuels.”

Listen to Vilsack’s address here.
Secy Vilsack - Climate Smart Commodities (30:30)