USDA delivers climate-smart ag rule to White House OMB
December 11, 2024
BY Erin Voegele
The USDA on Dec. 6 delivered an interim final rule setting technical guidelines for climate-smart agriculture crops used as biofuel feedstocks to the White House Office of Management and Budget. OMB review marks a final step before a rule is promulgated.
No details on the specific contents included in the interim final rule have been publicly released.
The USDA in June launched a request for information (RFI) seeking public comments on procedures for quantifying, reporting and verifying the effect of climate-smart farming practices on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with U.S.-grown biofuel feedstocks. Although not specific to the 45Z clean fuels production tax credit, information gathered through the RFI is expected to help inform development of the climate smart ag components of GHG modeling currently under development for the tax credit.
At that time, the USDA said that input collected through the RFI would be used establish voluntary standards for biofuel feedstocks grown with practices that mitigate GHG emissions and/or sequester soil carbon. These standards would be available for consideration in international, national, or state clean transportation fuel policies to further incentivize climate-smart biofuel feedstock crops.
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During an appearance at the Growth Energy Biofuels Summit in September, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the agency was in the process of assembling approximately 260 comments received as part of the RFI. He said the USDA was working to issue a final rule that identifies the feedstocks that USDA thinks should be authorized and allowed to produce fuel that qualifies for the 45Z credit. He said the agency hoped the effort would expand the list of eligible feedstocks beyond corn and soy, and noted the agency was working to see if it could make the case for individual practices on the farm and/or combinations of farm practices that would increase the flexibility of climate-smart ag practices for the purpose of the 45Z credit.
The USDA has now completed development of the interim final rule and has delivered the rulemaking to the OMB where it will undergo review by other federal agencies.
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