The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) is encouraged by the new Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Partnership Initiative U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced. The initiative is designed to scale the deployment of climate-smart farming practices and demonstrate the link those practices have on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from products such as biofuels. American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings issued the following statement thanking Secretary Vilsack for providing additional resources to showcase why ethanol can and should be part of the climate change solution:
“ACE thanks Secretary Vilsack for this new and visionary USDA initiative to support the adoption of farm-level practices which help result in products such as ethanol that reduce GHG emissions. This new Climate-Smart Partnership Initiative is similar to the historic Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) grant USDA awarded to ACE and several partners just last week to help establish a protocol for biofuel producers and farmers to document the carbon intensity benefits of changes in agricultural practices. We appreciate Secretary Vilsack recognized this investment in his livestreamed remarks today.
“This past April, ACE submitted comments urging USDA to develop a commonsense framework to help overcome the risks and cost barriers associated with adoption of farm-level practices that sequester carbon in the soil, and for assistance in establishing a way to track and measure the benefits to the overall carbon intensity of corn ethanol. Ultimately, we need farmers and ethanol producers to reap the rewards of these practices in future low carbon fuel markets. We were delighted to see our project was chosen last week to receive funding through the NRCS RCPP to demonstrate this very concept, and we’re hopeful this new program announced today can provide further opportunities to demonstrate how value can go all the way back to farmers for producing low carbon biofuels.
“ACE will work with USDA to establish this new initiative and incorporate our practical experience in implementing the first of its kind RCPP project. ACE looks forward to partnering with USDA to establish a marketplace at scale that rewards farmers and biofuel producers for the role they play in reducing GHG emissions.”
