The approval benefits farmers and ethanol plants
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided U.S. sorghum producers with good news last week.
The EPA approved the crop for use as a biofuel on July 24.
Fuels and oils from sorghum “would meet the lifecycle GHG emissions reduction threshold of 50 percent required for advanced biofield and biomass-based diesel under the Renewable Fuel Standard program,” the EPA said in its ruling.
This potential revenue stream is good news for the American farmers who produce a total of 5.6 million acres of sorghum.
“This is a great day for U.S. sorghum farmers and our partners in the ethanol and biodiesel industries,” Don Bloss, chairman of the National Sorghum Producers, said in a July 24 statement.
The approval “adds value to the grain farmers produce,” he added.
As other sectors of the ag industry are affected by trade disruptions, farmers can appreciate this sector receiving a boost, said David Freemark, a South Dakota sorghum producer and member of the Sorghum Checkoff Board.
The news comes at a time “when it seems like all our markets are shrinking and now we’re expanding a market,” he told WNAX yesterday.
Using sorghum as a source of biofuel also gives ethanol producers flexibility.
The U.S. produced more than 15 billion gallons of ethanol in 2017, the Energy Information Administration says. And soybean oil accounted for about 2.8 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2017.
American sorghum could add another 21 million gallons of fuel to the mix, the EPA says.