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Minnesota Biofuels Association sees several wins following legislative session

The director of the Minnesota Biofuels Association says there were several policy wins for the industry during the legislative session.

Brian Werner tells Brownfield the top priorities going into the session were to expand market access for biofuels, provide cost-share incentives for advanced biofuel production, and ensure growth for new uses.

“And given some of the headwinds that we were facing in the legislature this year in Minnesota, I would describe this session as a win for biofuels specifically because of some of the policy and budget wins that we were able to secure.”

He says one of the headwinds for biofuels was a lack of representation among DFL lawmakers.

“One of our goals for this legislative session was to meet with a lot of DFL members that were on the agriculture committee (and) the environment committee to really do that outreach and education piece to talk through some of those misconceptions that I think a lot of folks have about biofuels.”

Werner says the association was successful in getting lawmakers to understand the importance of biofuels both in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation but also in supporting Minnesota’s rural economy.