Statement on Proposed 45Z Regulations

On February 3, 2026, the United States Treasury Department released a proposed rulemaking on the 45Z clean fuel production tax credit.  The proposed rule does NOT currently allow corn ethanol producers to alter the carbon intensity of the ethanol produced by inputting the feedstock data that corn farmers might be tracking on the corn they produce.  The proposed rule DOES entertain that the United States Treasury Department anticipates publishing additional guidance in the future on this subject matter.

Based on the proposed rulemaking, the next steps are as follows:

1. The United States Department of Agriculture must publish the final version of the USDA FD-CIC which is the feedstock carbon intensity calculator.
2. The United States Department of Energy must release an update to the 45CF – GREET model that incorporates the USDA feedstock module.
3. The United States Department of Treasury must publish additional guidance.

Until such time as these three steps are achieved, there remains NO opportunity to utilize the 45Z clean fuel production tax credit as the financial source to incentivize certain farm practices or pay corn farmers additional compensation beyond the posted cash bids.

To read the proposed rulemaking, please click here.