There’s an ongoing debate within the Biden administration about the role of ethanol in qualifying for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) tax credits. Officials are attempting to define eligibility criteria that will satisfy both supporters of ethanol and those favoring other feedstocks, Reuters reports.
Proponents of ethanol insist that without this fuel, the administration wouldn’t be able to deliver on its objective of providing at least 3 billion gallons of SAF per year to the aviation industry. Contention arises around the model used to calculate carbon offsets for the fuel.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA/Climate Bill) has mandated the usage of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) tool, developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization, or a similar approach, for gauging SAF emissions.
However, the ethanol industry favors the Department of Energy’s Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model, as it accounts for indirect land-use change in a manner more beneficial to ethanol.
The administration is reportedly considering an approach that incorporates elements of the GREET model into feedstock evaluation, but a compromise has yet to be reached.
Support for including ethanol in the SAF process, especially in relation to tax credit eligibility under the IRA, has been backed by ethanol advocates, farm-state legislators and some aviation firms. Read more from Pro Farmer.
