American Coalition for Ethanol Submits Comments to California on Crop-Based Biofuels

by Rusty Halvorson (American Coalition for Ethanol/KFGO) The American Coalition for Ethanol submitted comments to the California Air Resources Board regarding its 2024 proposed amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The comments submitted by ACE CEO Brian Jennings focused on the proposed “sustainability criteria” for crop-based biofuels, the need to approve E15 use in California and the importance of E85 and flexible fuel vehicles.

“We do not support CARB’s sweeping ‘sustainability criteria’ approach to regulate ethanol producers and farmers,” Jennings stated in ACE’s comments. “The broad and burdensome proposal to require pathway holders to track crop-based feedstocks to their point of origin and obtain independent third-party certification will only serve to discourage participation in the LCFS. Instead, we offer a scientifically driven alternative based on real-world farm practices.”

Jennings references the recent announcement of the United States Department of Agriculture’s $25 million investment in the Regional Conservation Partnership Program led by ACE. This USDA RCPP project is designed to unlock corn ethanol access to LCFS markets and new tax incentives based on the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices which reduce GHG emissions.

The USDA funding will help farmers adopt reduced tillage, nutrient management and cover crops on nearly 100,000 acres across 167 counties surrounding 13 ethanol facilities partnering with ACE to implement the project in the 10-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The sites were strategically chosen to provide our project’s scientific team with statistically significant data regarding the GHG effect of conservation practices in different soil types and climates.

“While we may share CARB’s goal for better understanding the GHG impacts farming practices have on crop-based biofuels, we disagree feedstocks such as corn must be tracked to their point of origin,” Jennings continues. “Rather, some of the models CARB and other regulators use today to penalize corn ethanol for land use change (LUC) and farm-level practices can be improved and modified to assign carbon credits based on climate-smart agriculture practices.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Renewable Fuels Association: In comments submitted to the California Air Resources Board on proposed amendments to that state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the Renewable Fuels Association expressed concerns about a previously undiscussed sustainability certification program and the state’s continued delay in allowing sales of the lower-carbon E15 fuel blend.

“Imposing a third-party verification system for feedstock certification places an extreme audit burden on feedstock suppliers and biofuel producers without any clearly defined benefit,” wrote RFA Chief Economist Scott Richman, who noted that the proposal came from nowhere and with no stakeholder input. “The audit report summaries would need to be designed so that their publication does not result in the disclosure of sensitive or confidential business information.”

He added that the provision does not even define the general term “sustainability” and needs extensive stakeholder engagement and analysis before being considered for inclusion in any amendment to the LCFS program. Were such a program to be implemented, Richman wrote, it should only apply to imports and exclude domestic supplies.

Regarding E15, Richman wrote that California is now the only state that does not allow the fuel, and that RFA and others have been working to ensure CARB has all the information it needs to make an informed decision to allow the fuel. “E15 is the leading opportunity under the LCFS to immediately and significantly further reduce GHG emissions while at the same time reducing criteria pollutant emissions and consumer costs,” he wrote.

The RFA comments also addressed four other provisions in the proposed amendments: