Daybreak Oct. 8: White House Hosts Farm Groups, Ag Leaders

by Lydia Johnson, Steve Davies, Noah Wicks, and Rebekah Alvey (Agri-Pulse) USDA and the White House will host selected farm groups for meetings today (October 8, 2024) with government officials to discuss the Biden administration’s key ag and rural investments.

The “Farmers and Ranchers in Action” meeting will feature remarks from Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, White House policy adviser Neera Tanden and Doug McKalip, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s chief ag negotiator at the White House.

Discussions will center on the “transformative investments the Biden-Harris administration has made to support family farms and rural communities” through the American Rescue Plan Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, according to a USDA spokesperson.

“Farmers and ranchers are feeling the benefits of the historic investments made by this administration,” National Farmers Union President Rob Larew told Agri-Pulse. “Our Farmers Union members are ready to engage in conversations about how to build upon the success and ensure a sustainable path for the future.”

National Corn Growers Association President Kenneth Hartman said he’ll center his message on expanding markets for corn growers by making it possible for farmers to “access tax credits for sustainable aviation fuels, completion of a five-year farm bill and providing year-around access to higher blends of ethanol,” he said. READ MORE

Excerpt from Oklahoma Farm Report: American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall today (October 15, 2024) urged the administration to prioritize American-grown crops in the production of sustainable fuels during a meeting at the White House organized by the AFBF. Duvall was joined by leaders from the National Corn Growers Association and American Soybean Association to urge Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation John Podesta to take action.

President Duvall said, “We appreciate John Podesta’s willingness to hear our concerns about the Clean Fuel Production Credit and the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Credit. Both have the potential to be valuable incentives to produce homegrown biofuels that will help lower the nation’s carbon emissions and keep America’s farmers economically sustainable, but improvements are needed. These are tax credits that should benefit Americans, not foreign companies.”

Crops used for clean, renewable fuels are grown in the United States with a smaller environmental footprint than anywhere else in the world. Yet current guidance to produce sustainable aviation fuel does not require the use of domestically grown feedstocks. This has resulted in interests from outside of the U.S. taking advantage of the credits at the expense of rural America. Cumbersome and unnecessary reporting demands also put the monetary benefit of participating in the market out of reach for many U.S. farmers.

Duvall and the other agriculture leaders called for the administration to move quickly in adopting workable regulations for the tax credits, saying, “Time is of the essence. The Clean Fuels Production Credit is scheduled to go into effect next year, and farmers must soon decide whether they are willing and able to participate in the program. We urge Mr. Podesta and the administration to prioritize America’s farmers by establishing a domestic feedstock requirement for clean fuel production credits, and revise guidelines to make the goal of producing efficient biofuels more attainable.” More information about tax policies that affect farmers can be found here. READ MORE

Excerpt from Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association: In his testimony, Werner said the 40B Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) tax credit guidance released in April was a step in the right direction but additional flexibility for farmers and biofuel producers was needed in the upcoming 45Z guidance, in part by "unbundling" climate smart agriculture (CSA) practice requirements and including a broader array of conservation practices and industrial decarbonization technologies.

"We also recommend that CSA attributes be 'decoupled' fromt the physical bushels of grain, as in a 'book-and-claim' accounting system. This approach would provide flexibility for biofuel producers and avoid disruptions in grain flows, grain marketing inefficienciesm and prevent increased transportation emissions," he said.

My name is Brian Werner, and I am the Executive Director of the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association. On behalf of our nine producer members across the state of Minnesota, we appreciate the opportunity to provide testimony during this public consultation.

We thank USDA for its ongoing interagency work with the U.S. Treasury Department, among other federal agencies, to implement the clean fuel production tax credits enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The 40B SAF tax credit guidance released in April, was a step in the right direction. We strongly support allowing Argonne GREET to serve as a qualifying lifecycle model, and we appreciate that the modified GREET for 40B allows farming practices to contribute to carbon intensity (CI) reductions.

However, moving forward, as detailed in our comment letter, we urge you to provide additional flexibility for farmers and biofuel producers in the upcoming 45Z guidance, in part by “unbundling” CSA practice requirements and including a broader array of conservation practices and industrial decarbonization technologies into the models.

We also recommend that CSA attributes be “decoupled” from the physical bushels of grain, as in a “book-and-claim” accounting system. This approach would provide flexibility for biofuel producers and avoid disruptions in grain flows, grain marketing inefficiencies, and prevent increased transportation emissions.

Additionally, the scientific consensus on the impact of land use changes from biofuel production has benefitted from improved research methods and better cropland data classification systems. A more robust body of peer-reviewed research has helped to confirm that biofuels reduce GHG emissions. When quantifying the GHG emissions outcomes related to both CSA and conventional farming practices, USDA should rely on the predominant scientific consensus on direct and indirect land use change that show the overwhelming GHG emissions benefits of biofuels.

Lastly, the 40B SAF guidance was significantly delayed and released nearly a year-and-a-half after the tax credit went into effect. Ethanol producers cannot make forward-looking business decisions and investments when facing regulatory uncertainty. The 45Z tax credit guidance must be finalized by January 1, 2025, or the congressional intent of the credit to increase low-carbon domestic renewable fuels and further decarbonize existing biofuel production will be undermined.