MODALE, Iowa (KMTV)
- Video shows Larry Buss, a Harrison County, Iowa farmer at his grain elevator near Modale, Iowa. Also, an interview with Monte Shaw, the executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.
- An update to the way the U.S. Dept. of Treasury will calculate tax credits for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) means that corn-based ethanol can qualify for tax credits offered the government.
- Corn growers expect to see more revenue from their crops in the coming years as SAF becomes more important to the aviation industry.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
I'm just outside Modale, Iowa where I'm talking with farmer Larry Buss. I'm your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter and we've been discussing a new opportunity for corn farmers to contribute to sustainable aviation fuel.
Some of this gets technical ...last week...the treasury department made a change
Soon, jet fuel containing corn-based ethanol will be eligible for a tax credit.
And that means the aviation industry will buy more corn-based, sustainable fuel – you'll hear people call it '"SAF.”
"Corn-based ethanol, is the – it's ready, it's here, we know how to make it, we know how to use it, we know how to grow corn and it is a product that – in my opinion-- is going to take the lion's share of what's going to come in the future of this SAF. So it's really, really big."
Larry buss farms with his family in Harrison County. He's also worked for the Corps of Engineers and serves on the board of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
He says that more money for corn growers means more money for local economies.
"If we've got money we tend to spend it"
On pickups, tractors, implements ... re-investing in their businesses.
Monte Shaw grew up on a farm near Shenandoah. He's executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, representing the ethanol industry.
"If this market grows like they say it will, I don't know, but if it does – it will be the biggest transformation we've seen in rural America in my lifetime."
I asked both Shaw and Buss about the high carbon footprint associated with ethanol...
They both say ag science has improved over the last few decades...
"In the last 15 years, farming has gotten way lower carbon intensity with the efficiencies in farming practices and no-till, and modified till and all the different things farmers are doing to lower their environmental impact. Huge changes."
"...And the benefits are reduced soil erosion, better soil health, better water quality, better corn yields, better organic matter..."
Because of that Buss uses less fertilzer, which goes into the overall carbon intensity calculations. They both say, to meet the carbon intensity guideline....the ethanol industry will have to use controversial carbon capture pipelines.
“They’ve got to lower their CI score to be competitive...I can’t see any other way to do this than the pipelines.”
For now, though, in communities that rely on a strong ag economy...
"Sustainable aviation fuel...Which is going to be huge. Huge, huge, huge."
