Sustainable agriculture company Indigo Ag and North Dakota bioethanol producer Red Trail Energy (RTE) have announced a collaboration to source low carbon intensity (CI) corn to support farmers using sustainable practices and benefit from emerging clean fuels market tax credit programs.

Utilizing Indigo’s proven measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) and remote sensing capabilities, RTE will work with Indigo Ag to measure field level carbon intensity (CI) and identify, enroll and verify farmers with the highest potential to produce low CI feedstock. Indigo Ag will produce the data required for tax credit compliance, including data collection, verification and analysis of eligible practices in GREET and other clean fuel calculators. This level of data collection will enable RTE to maximize benefits from clean fuel markets across the U.S. and Canada, starting with the 45Z tax credit in January 2025.

RTE will be amongst the first ethanol producers to take advantage of the Clean Fuel Production Credit, or 45Z, in January 2025, utilizing 2024 crops. 45Z will pay 2 cents per gallon for every carbon intensity (CI) point reduction below the minimum threshold, and will be the first clean fuels program to enable the generation of credits from lower CI agricultural feedstock in a meaningful way. Sustainable farming practices like cover crops or no till have the potential to lower ethanol CI scores by more than 20 points.