Clean Fuels Alliance America members met in Washington D.C. last week to elect new Governing Board members that reflect the interests of both large and small companies, biodiesel and renewable diesel producers, as well as soybean growers and renderers. The board appointed Kent Engelbrecht to serve as Chair, Rob Shaffer as Vice-Chair, Courtney Lawrenson as Second Vice-Chair, Ryan Pederson as …
RFA Weighs in With CARB on Imported UCO Feedstock
The Renewable Fuels Association provided comments this week in response to a request for information from the California Air Resources Board, urging them to do more to ensure the integrity of imported used cooking oil (UCO) and tallow for biomass-based diesel production under the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard. According to CARB data on fuel consumption in California, usage of …
Implementation Plan for SAF Challenge Released
The U.S. Departments of Energy, Transportation, and Agriculture have released the Implementation Framework for the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge Roadmap. The SAF Grand Challenge was launched in 2021 as a government-wide strategy for identifying new technologies to produce SAF on a commercial scale with the overall goal to produce three billion gallons per year of domestic SAF by …
RFA Watching Trump Administration Choices
President-elect Donald Trump continues to announce choices for administration positions at record speed and the Renewable Fuels Association is generally pleased so far. “We’re excited about the opportunity to sit down with the new leadership in the incoming Trump administration, to make our case and remind them of why ethanol should be part of their energy strategy and and energy …
EPA Adds to Farm, Ranch and Rural Advisory Committee
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan this week announced the appointment of 18 new members and reappointment of six members to the agency’s Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee, which provides independent policy advice and recommendations on issues affecting agriculture and rural communities. Among the new members from the biofuels sector are Alan Weber, Biodiesel Coalition of Missouri, …
CARB Passes Amendments to California LCFS
Most of the rest of the country was asleep Friday night when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) wrapped up a 12 hour public meeting at midnight local time on amendments to the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). The updates include increasing the target to reduce carbon emissions of transportation fuels 30%, instead of 20, by the year 2030, …
Minnesota Chosen as Site for New SAF Plant
DG Fuels recently announced Moorhead, Minnesota as the site for a $5 billion manufacturing facility that will produce 193 million gallons per year of low-carbon aviation fuel (SAF) using agricultural and wood waste as feedstock. This news is a notable milestone for the MN SAF Hub and is the most significant commitment towards commercial-scale SAF production in the state. The …
ZeaKal PhotoSeed is 1st Sustainability-Embedded Trait Tech
ZeaKal today announced that PhotoSeed™ Soy has been validated as the first sustainability-embedded trait technology for agriculture, a technology that could expand the volume of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production by approximately one billion additional gallons on existing U.S. soybean acreage. Han Chen, co-founder and CEO of ZeaKal, says they were able to validate PhotoSeed’s impact on the carbon intensity …
USDA Announces $239 Million for Domestic Biofuels
USDA this week announced the awarding of $39 million in grants to increase the availability of domestic biofuels in 18 states, and an allocation making $200 million available through the new Biobased Market Access and Development Grants from Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds. Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small announced the awards and funding made possible through the Higher Blends Infrastructure …
CoBank Report Studies Future for SAF
A new CoBank Knowledge Exchange report on Charting the Path Forward for SAF finds sustainable aviation fuel provides great opportunity for growth in U.S. biofuels production from agricultural feedstocks, as long as the market and regulatory incentives are there for farmers and the wider biofuels industry. According to the report, the anticipated guidance for the 45Z tax credit, also known …