Progress Power, the nation’s main biofuel commerce affiliation, reacted to new tax and carbon modeling tips launched immediately by the Biden administration. The rules, which will probably be used to calculate the part 40B Sustainable Aviation Gasoline (SAF) blender tax credit beneath the Inflation Discount Act, are an essential step ahead for the bioeconomy, based on Progress Power CEO Emily Skor, who made the next assertion in response:
“This steering crosses an essential threshold in carbon modeling, recognizing for the primary time that farming strategies can scale back the carbon depth of crops, and, by extension, bioethanol manufacturing. It’s additionally the primary time Treasury has used the Argonne Nationwide Laboratory’s GREET mannequin in federal tax coverage. These are promising big-picture developments and sign that agriculture is a key a part of our nation’s local weather technique.
“The brand new 40B GREET mannequin is trending with scientific consensus with regards to measuring oblique land use change (iLUC). Years’ price of peer-reviewed analysis has proven that this quantity has been reducing with regards to bioethanol manufacturing. We hope future steering for the 45Z tax incentive follows this development and continues to mirror the falling iLUC values for American biofuels.
“Nonetheless, the administration’s restrictive all-or-nothing strategy to recognizing the worth of local weather sensible agriculture practices might finally restrict innovation and make farmers, blenders, and producers much less – no more – prone to put money into emissions-reducing applied sciences. America’s potential SAF producers and their farm companions want flexibility to search out the trail that works finest for them, however these inflexible tips will depart carbon reductions on the desk.
“The SAF market is simply getting off the bottom, and immediately’s tips are solely the start of an essential journey for the bioeconomy. Because the administration builds on the 40B GREET mannequin, its steering for the 45Z tax credit score should be much less prescriptive and extra expansive—totally embracing the totality of improvements that, by its personal admission, can demonstrably scale back carbon depth. Solely then will the inducement construction give a powerful market sign to producers that they’ve been given the inexperienced gentle on SAF, and that each one of their improvements on the farm and on the plant will probably be correctly rewarded.”
