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GREET Model update expected Tuesday

Updated biofuel tax credit guidelines for both farmers and the biofuels industry are expected yet today. 

The Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies, or GREET model helps federal officials calculate emissions, and other environmentally-important data.  That data is then used to set tax credits for producers. 

Paul Winters with the Clean Fuels Alliance says biofuel producers are used to the existing dollar-per-gallon blender credit but, “Next year, this transitions to a producer tax credit so they will be applying for that credit directly, and everyone is still wondering what the value of that credit is going to be.”

Jared Mullendore with the Renewable Fuels Association says the expected new tax credits are supposed to benefit farmers as well as biofuel producers. “We’ve been assured that Climate Smart Ag Practices, whether that’s fettilizer use or cover cropping, that those are going to be part of the calculation, and it’s going to vary farm by farm, state by state, and county-by-county.”

Winters says the uncertainty has stalled millions in investments for things like sustainable aviation fuel infrastructure. 

The deadline for the GREET model update was March .1^st. but was delayed.  The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to release the guidelines Tuesday.

Winters and Mullendore spoke to Brownfield during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Washington Watch Monday.