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Sen. Brown says 45Z proposal necessary to prioritize domestic feedstocks

A bipartisan bill has been introduced into the U.S. Senate to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to purchase imported feedstocks for biofuels production.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, co-sponsor of the bill, says there’s been a surge of imports from China and Brazil, displacing the use of domestic feedstocks.

“We can’t allow foreign feed stock to crowd Ohio farmers out of the market. We certainly should not allow American tax dollars to support these foreign imports,” he says.

He tells Brownfield the U.S. Treasury needs to release its guidance on 45Z before Jan. 1, when the credit takes effect.

“We will continue all routes. We’ll work on the farm bill coming up in the fall and I hope we get it done. Next year there’s likely a big tax vote,” he says. “We will be unrelenting in advocacy.”

Director of the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association Tadd Nicholson says he anticipates the bill will incentivize ethanol plants to purchase low-carbon intensity corn.

“We are just now calculating those, but there’s never been a value on the carbon intensity score, and this tax credit represents the first opportunity for that,” he says.

The bill is co-led by Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall, and is co-sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota; Deb Fischer, of Nebraska; and Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin, are also co-sponsors on the bill.