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Fischer says new modeling incentivizes imports

A Senate Ag Committee member is asking for modeling used to measure transportation emissions for sustainable aviation fuel to be reevaluated.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, Nebraska Republican Deb Fischer raised concerns that American corn and soybean biofuels could be at a disadvantage to imports with the new model.

“With this updated modeling, corn and soy-based biofuels, even if they complete the additional conservation practices, would still be deemed more carbon intensive than Brazilian sugar cane ethanol,” she said.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said his department’s role in the interagency task force that released the updates was to ensure all farmers had options to comply with the Clean Air Act.

“I think the design of conservation programs and tax policy well, those questions are probably better steered to USDA or Treasury,” he countered. “I’m not an architect of how those programs work.”

Fischer said the model has the potential to use taxpayer dollars to incentivize importing foreign fuel.

Regan disagreed, saying the updates allow farmers to compete in the sustainable aviation fuel global marketplace.