Growth Energy urges IRS to include ethanol industry in SAF expansion

In Washington, in a letter submitted Friday, Growth Energy urged the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to include the U.S. ethanol industry in its effort to reach the Biden administration’s goals for the expanded use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Specifically, the administration’s SAF Grand Challenge pledges to reach 3 billion gallons of SAF production per year by 2030 and 35 billion gallons per year by 2050. Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), IRS is responsible for the implementation of the bill’s SAF tax credits included in sections 40B and 45Z. How large these incentives are, and who is eligible to receive them, will be determined by what lifecycle analysis (LCA) model IRS chooses to use in its assessments of potential SAF sources and feedstocks. In its letter, Growth Energy called on IRS to rely on the best available science to accurately account for the emissions profile of biofuels, in particular by using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model developed by the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.