The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) today welcomed the U.S. Treasury Department decision to recognize the Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory’s Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model as a “similar methodology” under section 40B of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credit. ACE CEO Brian Jennings welcomed this decision in the following statement:
“Today’s decision helps clear the runway for ethanol-to-jet. Treasury made the right call to enable the use of GREET to determine the carbon intensity of SAF because it is the global gold-standard for calculating GHGs from transportation fuels and GREET is the most up-to-date, accurate model reflecting the best-available science, including farm practices. Treasury’s decision will enable corn ethanol to emerge as a significant SAF feedstock in the years to come and fulfill President Biden’s pledge that farmers would be providing 95 percent of SAF in the next 20 years.
“No one in the Biden Administration has a stronger grasp on the need for lifecycle modeling to reflect the best available science than U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack, and we applaud his leadership and efforts by the department to help fortify the GREET model to satisfy any questions about whether it is a similar methodology to the CORSIA model. Allowing the use of GREET for the 40B SAF credit is consistent with the statutory requirement for Treasury to use GREET for the 45V Clean Hydrogen credit and 45Z Clean Fuel Production credit.
“We look forward to continuing to engage with Treasury on this and other biofuel priorities as further guidance is issued.”