My wife and I never imagined we’d be soccer parents, but for the last several years we have traveled near and far to watch our kids play.
Some kids have advantages such as acquiring athletic genes or learning soccer skills from their parents. Not our kids. Their success has been attributed to effort, work ethic and attitude.
In youth soccer, athletes dominate. But as time goes by, kids who are driven to get better and train outside of practice tend to excel in competitive leagues. While our kids began as bench warmers, they eventually earned starting spots on their respective competitive teams. Their progression is a testament to the “everything counts” principle.
The ethanol industry can identify with “everything counts.” Although ethanol has advantages such as being cleaner and usually more affordable than competing fuel sources, we do not possess Big Oil’s war chest, and we don’t get kid glove media treatment like electric vehicles. Nevertheless, the people of our industry are passionate, hard-working and unwilling to give up – so when everything counts – we tend to punch above our weight and succeed in reaching our goals.
When it comes to carbon intensity, everything is supposed to count, but that is not how it works. Not yet anyway. For example, efficient use of fertilizer is easily documented and can cut corn farming emissions in half. Reduced tillage and cover crops can increase soil carbon sequestration in corn fields.
Unfortunately, EPA and other regulators are not yet willing to sufficiently credit ethanol for these climate-smart practices, even though they insist on counting so-called indirect effects such as land use change penalties.
As existing clean fuel markets evolve and new low carbon fuel markets emerge, ACE is on a mission to make sure ethanol gets credit for climate-smart agriculture because future demand is going to hinge on driving down our carbon score.
We will also keep pressure on regulators who conveniently forget to count upstream pollution for EVs, such as burning coal to make electricity or emissions from mining and manufacturing minerals into battery components. If every angel on the head of a pin must be counted towards ethanol’s carbon intensity, everything damn well better count when it comes to EVs as well.
ACE will not quit until everything counts and ethanol earns its rightful place as the most valuable low carbon fuel on the team. You can count on it.