Biofuel organizations welcomed the release Wednesday of USDA’s interim rule on Technical Guidelines for Climate-Smart Agriculture Crops Used as Biofuel Feedstocks, in addition to a beta version Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator, and the Department of Energy release of the 45ZCF-GREET model
The rule establishes guidelines for quantifying, reporting, and verifying the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of corn, sorghum, and other biofuel feedstock crops grown in the United States and could help inform the inclusion of CSA practices in future clean fuel regulations and tax credit programs, like the 45Z clean fuel production credit.
“America’s ethanol producers applaud USDA for publishing these important guidelines, and we sincerely thank Secretary Tom Vilsack for his extraordinary vision and leadership,” said Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “Today’s USDA guidelines finally create a much-needed structure for properly assessing, valuing, and integrating the carbon reduction benefits of certain farming practices into lifecycle analysis.”
The rule mentions work by the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) projects, which will serve as a resource to inform updated greenhouse gas (GHG) credit values for CSA practices. “The ACE-led USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership Programs (RCPPs) are designed to help improve the accuracy of the GREET model, and we look forward to partnering with Argonne scientists and USDA, particularly in how climate-smart agriculture crops are calculated under GREET and USDA’s new feedstock carbon intensity tool, to ensure farmers and ethanol producers can maximize on 45Z and future programs,” said ACE CEO Brian Jennings.
Clean Fuels Alliance America says USDA’s rule could enable American farmers and biofuel producers to calculate the carbon benefits of conservation practices. “These rules are crucial to our industry, and continued growth in the industry is essential to the agricultural sector and to U.S. energy security. We will continue to work with our members to evaluate whether today’s releases provide clean fuel producers the policy certainty they need to negotiate feedstock and fuel offtake agreements, and ultimately grow the production and market for biomass-based diesel,” said Clean Fuels Vice President of Federal Affairs Kurt Kovarik.
USDA is requesting public comment on the interim rule to help inform future revisions or additions to the final rule until March 18, and ultimately the final decision will be made by the incoming Trump administration. RFA intends to provide comments to USDA on potential improvements, including the need for a decoupled, book-and-claim approach for supply chain management of CSA feedstocks.