USDA says 45Z clean fuel feedstock guidance is imminent this summer

Brooke Rollins told lawmakers USDA’s 45Z feedstock guidance was imminent and expected this summer, giving ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, renewable natural gas and SAF producers a timing signal they have been waiting on as they model credit value around low-carbon pathways. The USDA secretary made the comment during a House Agriculture Committee hearing on June 4, where Rep. Nikki Budzinski pressed the issue and Rollins said the administration was moving toward an official rule set.

The timing matters because feedstock guidance will determine which pathways can capture 45Z value and how producers structure contracting, capital allocation and carbon-intensity management. For plants already planning around the credit, the practical question is how USDA will define and verify eligible feedstocks, since that will decide who gets rewarded for lower life-cycle emissions and who may be left behind.

USDA had already taken a first step on January 15, 2025, when it published an interim rule titled Technical Guidelines for Climate-Smart Agriculture Crops Used as Biofuel Feedstocks. That rule established technical guidelines for quantifying, reporting and verifying greenhouse gas emissions tied to agricultural production of biofuel feedstock commodity crops grown in the United States, a framework intended to support climate-smart agriculture market opportunities.

Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service then issued proposed 45Z regulations on February 3, 2026, covering credit eligibility, emissions rates and certification and registration requirements. Federal law said the Secretary should have issued 45Z guidance by January 1, 2025, so the latest USDA signal pushes the process closer to the market’s planning window even as producers continue to wait for the feedstock side of the equation.

Budzinski has argued that the credit needs to give agricultural and biofuels producers the certainty they have been waiting for. She co-led the bipartisan, bicameral Farm First Fuel Incentives Act in April 2025, a bill that would restrict 45Z eligibility to domestically sourced feedstocks and extend the credit through 2034. Farm groups have said the incentive could boost demand for corn, soybeans, crop residues and animal fats, while biofuel and farm organizations have pushed for domestic-feedstock rules to protect U.S. farmers from foreign competition.

The June 4 hearing, formally titled “For the Purpose of Receiving Testimony from the Honorable Brooke L. Rollins, Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture,” began at 10:00 a.m. ET in Washington. With RFS Set 2 already reshaping market expectations, the eventual USDA feedstock package is set to become another major driver of feedstock competition and project economics.