Technical Guidelines for the Production of Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstocks
Key claim: The USDA finalizes revised technical guidelines for quantifying, reporting, and verifying the carbon intensity of agricultural commodity crops used as biofuel feedstocks, updating a January 2025 interim rule in response to public comments and intervening executive action.
Abstract
(Rule · Agriculture Department, Energy and Environmental Policy Office) This final rule revises technical guidelines for quantifying, reporting, and verifying the carbon intensity of agricultural commodity crops used in the production of biofuels relative to an estimated national average that were established by a prior January 2025 interim rule. Specifically, the January 2025 interim rule established guidelines for the implementation, reporting, verification, and quantification of carbon intensity (CI) of certain agricultural commodities at the field-scale. This final rule makes revisions to the January 2025 interim rule that were requested by commenters or that are otherwise necessary because of intervening Executive action. The revised guidelines articulate an approach for farm producers to quantify the change in net emissions associated with crops produced using one or more authorized practices. The revised guidelines also articulate a framework for how information regarding emissions, resulting from the production of biofuel feedstock commodity crops, could be reported and tracked throughout the supply chain.
Why this matters
Pending synthesis.