Policy
Moving Stepwise Toward State Clean Fuel Standards From Minnesota to Nebraska, discussions around performance-based fuel standards are bringing a broad range of stakeholders together. Progress requires coalition building and compromise. By Susanne Retka Schill
Movement towards state clean fuel standards in the Midwest inspired by a broader regional vision continues, albeit slowly. Brian Kletscher, CEO of High-
water Ethanol and board president of the Minnesota Biofuels Association, is content with the pace. “This is one bill I’m okay with it taking its time to get done. We need to make sure it gets done right.” The Minnesota state legislature has held hearings on the Future Fuels Act in two sessions now. “It’s not uncommon that we see bills like this take some time to work through because there’s lots of policy to be developed,” Kletscher says. Many groups are cautious about giving full support, having questions about policy language, concerns about which state agency would administer the program and uncertainty about the policy itself. The educational effort is substantial— not only with legislators themselves who
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Kletscher
hear conflicting viewpoints, but with farm groups leery of new regulations, environmental groups suspicious of anything promoting corn ethanol and other stakeholders seeking favorable in-
centives. “I would say our progress slowed somewhat in 2022 in Minnesota, but it’s the nature of trying to enact a comprehensive, significant new piece of legislation,” says Brian Jennings, CEO of the American Coalition for Ethanol. “After making really great progress in 2021, more than we should have anticipated, in 2022 the opponents sharpened their knives a bit and were more prepared.” The bill was successfully amended in the Democrat-controlled house to satisfy critics, but lacked momentum in the Republican-controlled senate. “We need to reevaluate what the senators
are concerned about, what they need and want. We may have to make some changes to accommodate that,” Jennings says. “But despite the slow progress in Minnesota, I’m still Jennings very encouraged by the overall trajectory of our work in the Midwest.” “The coalition continues to grow,” says Brendan Jordan, vice president transportation and fuels at the Great Plains Institute. “We’ve had strong support from a lot of different organizations ranging from forest products industry stakeholders interested in utilizing wood residuals for biofuels production to the auto industry, the electric vehicle sector, and strong support from the ethanol industry. We have very broad support, but it’s a big policy and it takes a few years.” There are groups, he adds, that are skeptical of anything involving ethanol, “but they
