Biofuel interests complain the administration’s updated carbon modeling tax credit guidance for sustainable aviation fuel crop feedstocks is too restrictive and will hurt farmers.
Growth Energy, the Renewable Fuels Association, and the American Soybean Association all say Treasury’s updated GREET model to figure SAF blender tax credits will hurt investment in climate-smart Ag. And Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says monitoring compliance with two main practices will be near impossible.
Grassley says, “How are you ever going to police what comes from a field that has a cover crop, what comes from a field that uses minimum tillage? But, a lot of this minimum tillage, I’m telling you, the ground is just as black as if we used a moldboard plow.”
The biofuel groups argue the updated GREET model must be less prescriptive while adding more low-carbon technologies and practices. ASA complains that no-till and cover cropping are feasible for soybean farmers only in certain regions.
Grassley agrees with the groups that more work is needed to fully open the SAF market to biofuels. He says, “These new barriers to entry will strip farmers of significant market opportunity. The Department of Energy developed the GREET program to be very science-based, as you would expect it to be. The Biden Administration’s update undermines that scientific data. It hurts farmers.”
The Treasury Department and an ad hoc working group will now develop the Clean Fuel Production Credit.
RFA expects the administration to soon seek public comment on the tax credit that starts at $1.25 a gallon for SAF that meets a 50 percent greenhouse gas reduction versus petroleum jet fuel. The credit could go up to $1.75 for reductions above 50%.
Story courtesy of NAFB News Service and Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau
