EPA Regional Administrator Gregory Sopkin has been touring South Dakota looking at the future of biofuels, water quality and soil management practices and how the agency can support these efforts. He says there are opportunities for farmers to sequester carbon and monetize it such as selling low carbon biofuels in places like California.
He thinks there is an opportunity for farmers to get credit or payment for carbon sequestration and soil health practices in the near future.
Yesterday Sopkin toured Alverson Farms near Chester where they’ve been building organic matter sequestering carbon for years through conservation tillage. Keith says the corn they grow on that land results in lower carbon ethanol, which up until now was not recognized.
Alverson says ethanol plants are currently receiving the credit for the low carbon biofuels they produce, but the hope is that will trickle down to the farm.
Sopkin also toured the Glacial Lakes Ethanol Plant in Watertown. He was impressed with E30 and hopes studies can be conducted to break through the regulatory barriers the product currently faces.
