The Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Minnesota Department of Transportation took public input on the state’s Clean Fuel Standard in a series of virtual meetings. This follows Governor Tim Walz’s directive for state agencies to determine if and how to move forward with the CFS. During Tuesday’s virtual program, Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Andrea Vaubel said there have been questions from the tracking of on-farm practices. “If the feedstock is corn, in some modeling there could be a general number and for some (modeling) there could be a farm-by-farm accounting of the practices done on the landscape to determine the carbon intensity.” There have also been questions about Minnesota going alone with a Clean Fuel Standard, rather than participating in a multi-state Midwestern effort. “There’s pros and cons here if Minnesota were to go first,” said Vaubel. “We could design this to what makes the most sense in Minnesota and others could follow suit. There are also concerns about not having similar policies in place in neighboring states.” Minnesota is a leader in biofuels policy. Vaubel said stakeholders are concerned the CFS may impact that reputation.
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