In his testimony, Werner said results of the CTS working group report showed that the carbon intensity reduction schedule in the CTS cannot be met without biofuels.

"For a CTS program to be successful, it needs to provide fairness to farmers and biofuel producers by leveling the playing field for all fuels, technologies, and feedstocks that can demonstrate lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reductions," he said.

Werner said there were several concerning provisions in the amendment such as the carbon intensity reduction schedule, the ban on biofuels produced from feedstocks grown on croplands with fewer than five consecutive years of cropping history, the ability of the Commissioner to outsource fuel pathway approvals to other states and the open-ended authority given to the Commissioner to prohibit credit generation from undefined "certain activities."

"While this amendment falls short of providing a truly level playing field, we look forward to continuing to work with the Chair and members of this Committee on improvements that will ensure it adequately addresses the concerns of farmers and renewable fuel producers while also meeting our shared goal of meaningful reductions in transportation and agricultural emissions," he said.

Read Werner's full testimony below:

Chair Dibble and Members of the Committee:

My name is Brian Werner, and I am the Executive Director of the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association, as well as a member of the Clean Transportation Standard Work Group. 

As discussions on a Clean Transportation Standard or CTS ramped up in the last year, a group of Minnesota agriculture and biofuel stakeholders came together to identify a narrow list of consensus positions and principles that we would need to see reflected in a bill to gain our support.

I am here today to testify on behalf of both my association and those stakeholders, which include the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, Minnesota Farmers Union, and the Minnesota Biodiesel Council.

First and foremost, we want to thank the Chair for his work on policy solutions to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota. We share that goal and view a well-crafted C-T-S program as a major tool to achieve emissions reductions, better air quality, and statewide economic benefits. 

We also want to recognize and thank the Chair for several updates to the bill text included in the amendment, like designating MNDOT as the lead state agency for program implementation, providing data protections for on-farm practices, and incorporating unique scoring for soil healthy farming practices. 

From our perspective, the results of the Work Group report were clear: we cannot meet the carbon intensity reduction schedule set forth in a CTS without the use of biofuels. 

That’s because Minnesota’s farmers and biofuel producers are already producing affordable and accessible lower carbon transportation fuels that are reducing emissions from vehicles on the road today. 

For a CTS program to be successful, it needs to provide fairness to farmers and biofuel producers by leveling the playing field for all fuels, technologies, and feedstocks that can demonstrate lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reductions. 

We remain concerned about several provisions in the amendment including the carbon intensity reduction schedule … the ban on biofuels produced from feedstocks grown on croplands with fewer than 5 consecutive years of cropping history … the ability of the Commissioner to outsource fuel pathway approvals to other states … and the open-ended authority given to the Commissioner to prohibit credit generation from undefined “certain activities.”

While this amendment falls short of providing a truly level playing field, we look forward to continuing to work with the Chair and members of this Committee on improvements that will ensure it adequately addresses the concerns of farmers and renewable fuel producers while also meeting our shared goal of meaningful reductions in transportation and agricultural emissions. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.