OMB nominee says USDA 45Z feedstock rule is making progress

Hal Duncan on June 16 said USDA’s 45Z feedstock rule was making progress, but the final text is still stuck in White House review after USDA sent it to OMB on April 2. The rule would set technical guidelines for regenerative agricultural biofuel feedstocks and determine how on-farm practices affect carbon-intensity scores under the 45Z clean fuel production credit, which became available Jan. 1, 2025. Treasury says the credit is paid on a per-gallon or gallon-equivalent basis and hinges on fuel carbon intensity and lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions.

USDA’s feedstock package is one of three major pieces of 45Z implementation, alongside Treasury and IRS final regulations and DOE’s 45ZCF-GREET model. Treasury and IRS delivered their proposed 45Z rule to OMB on Dec. 17, 2025, OMB finished its review on Jan. 23, 2026, and Treasury published the proposal on Feb. 4, leaving USDA’s separate feedstock rule as the last unresolved federal piece for practice-level scoring. USDA’s interim rule, published Jan. 15, 2025, established guidelines for quantifying, reporting and verifying greenhouse-gas emissions tied to U.S.-grown corn, soybeans and sorghum, and USDA’s feedstock carbon intensity calculator was folded into that framework.

Brooke Rollins on June 4 said release of the USDA guidance was “imminent” and scheduled for “this summer,” and she repeated on June 10 that the rule was still imminent and forthcoming. For ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, renewable natural gas and SAF producers, plus corn, soybean and sorghum growers, the missing USDA rule is the piece that turns farm practices into a credit value, which leaves planting, procurement and capital allocation decisions unsettled deep into 2026.

Industry groups are still pressing for a finished rule set. The Renewable Fuels Association said Treasury had made “meaningful progress” on 45Z but still needed clearer rules and an updated 45ZCF-GREET model as soon as possible, while the National Corn Growers Association has said 45Z could open a big new market for corn growers and that predictable rules are needed to reduce investment risk. DOE’s June 2026 model update added carbon-capture-and-sequestration parameters, split outputs for fuels produced in 2025 and after Dec. 31, 2025, and deducted indirect land-use-change contributions from post-2025 outputs, sharpening the emissions side of the credit even as USDA’s feedstock map remains unfinished.