The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition is advocating for federal policies to stimulate innovation in the green economy.
The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition (AFCC) is a relative newcomer to the Washington D.C. industry group representation, advocacy, and policy-making arena.
Yet, already, it has had a significant impact on US federal policy and federal programme funding.
AFCC was co-founded in 2019 by Mark J Riedy, Partner, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP (KTS) and AFCC General Counsel, who leads the KTS project finance and energy team of 80+ attorneys; CJ Evans, Managing Director, American Diversified Enterprises (ADE), a holding company that is comprised of several client service companies as well as a variety of technology and project development companies; and Rina Singh, PhD, AFCC’s Executive Vice President for Policy.
The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition is now the second largest bioeconomy advocacy group in the US, representing more than 150 companies that generate in excess of $350bn in annual revenues and employ more than 600,000 people.
Promoting innovation, commercialisation, and industry adoption
AFCC advocates on behalf of its member companies for federal policies and appropriations that stimulate innovations in alternative fuels, renewable chemicals, biobased products, and sustainable aviation fuels.
The coalition also supports research and development; scale-up and commercialisation; expedited deployment; and industry adoption of new technologies and processes that offer significant improvements in operating costs and efficiency and reduce environmental impacts.
The purpose of the Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition is to ensure that the issues important to its industry members are not overlooked and get the attention they need. AFCC does this through its advocacy and personal engagement with Congress and federal agencies, carrying out ongoing research and outreach, issuing policy statements, tracking state and international initiatives important to its member companies, holding conferences, and cooperating with other industry groups to fill in gaps and rally support on key issues.
The AFCC recognises that:
- All companies and groups have finite resources, set priorities on how these resources are to be used, and often find it difficult to divert or add to these resources to fight another brush fire when they already are fighting other brush fires on multiple fronts;
- Only if a new brush fire is bigger and more important than the other brush fires that already are being fought does it make sense to take resources away from one priority and devote those resources to another issue;
- An issue that might be important tomorrow but is not important today is going to sink to the bottom of the priority list;
- Most industry associations, lobbying groups, and companies with an active presence on Capitol Hill focus their efforts first and foremost on one or two key policy issues and much less on secondary issues and the appropriations that provide the funding for the federal agency programmes that establish and carry out these policies; and
- There are important gaps between what existing industry associations, lobbying groups, and companies with an active presence on Capitol Hill are able to pay attention to and do, how they decide to deploy their resources, and the mischief that can occur when an issue is advancing with little attention or notice, is overshadowed by other issues, or is inserted under cover of night as a bill is moving to the floor for a vote.
The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition was formed to fill in these gaps for its industry members.
Advocating for a sustainable bioeconomy
The AFCC advocates for innovation in several areas, including:
- Ensuring (and, when possible, increasing) the funding levels for federal programmes that stimulate innovation and support the bioeconomy in the annual appropriations that are approved by the US Congress;
- Working closely with the federal agencies and staff who manage these programmes to help its member companies better understand the opportunities they offer, as well as identifying ways in which AFCC can most effectively work with these agencies to help carry out their missions and advocate on Capitol Hill for improvements in their operation and reach; and
- Working with the US Congress on policies that will provide the maximum stimulus to the programs that benefit AFCC industry members so these companies can develop, produce, distribute, and promote the use of alternative fuels, renewable chemicals, biobased products, and sustainable aviation fuels that will create jobs, stimulate economic development, generate local tax revenues, reduce environmental impacts, and benefit the districts and states represented by each member of Congress.
What has the Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition accomplished?
For five years, the AFCC has monitored 50 different federal funding programmes that support the bioeconomy.
During this time, The American Fuels & Chemicals Coalition has prevented cuts to the funding levels for several federal programmes, increased funding for key programmes important to its industry members, and been successful in incorporating language into its appropriation requests that have been enacted in federal law to improve their operation.
Revitalising the Title 17 Innovative Technologies programme
One of AFCC’s most significant achievements occurred in 2020 when it drafted and advocated for legislative language that was enacted as Section 9010 of the Consolidation Appropriations Act of 2021.
This streamlined and revitalised the US Department of Energy’s Title 17 Innovative Technologies Loan Guarantee / Clean Energy Financing programme.
The Title 17 programme was established as part of the US Energy Policy Act of 2005 to provide financing for projects using innovative, disruptive, first-of-their-kind technologies.
Very few sources of private sector financing are willing to support projects that have a high risk of failure due to the use of something that is new, unproven beyond lab tests and prototypes, and never done before at a commercial scale.
As a result, many projects with innovative technologies are unable to secure the financing that is needed to advance beyond their initial design and pilot scale stages.
The Title 17 programme issued its first solicitations in 2009 with the hope that it would be ‘one of the most vital programs to advance America’s clean energy economy’ and ‘the best and often only way’ for innovative technologies to find financing and deployment.
It had several early successes, such as the construction of the first utility-scale wind- and solar-powered projects in the US, the success of which jump-started subsequent deployments – and private investments – that led to the proliferation of solar and wind projects throughout the US.
This brought down prices and led to the contributions that these technologies are making to the nation’s emission reduction and energy needs at prices that now are far below those of their fossil-fuel equivalents.
Moreover, a sister programme, the Advanced Technologies Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program, gave Tesla its start, funded the development and introduction of the Nissan Leaf, and supported the development and manufacturing of the Ford Motor Company’s EcoBoost engine, which is now standard in all Ford vehicles.
However, the Title 17 programme stalled in 2014. For the next seven years, it was able to bring only one project to fruition.
This changed dramatically following the enactment of the legislative language that the Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition was able to incorporate into the Consolidation Appropriations Act of 2021.
At the time, the media called this ‘a game changer for financing clean energy projects’ (Biomass Magazine), ‘The DOE Loan Guarantee re-invented, re programmed, revived’ (Biofuels Digest), and ‘a cost breakthrough’ (Advanced Biofuels USA).
Mark Riedy said that, when AFCC’s legislative language was enacted, “This amendment is likely the largest win in the history of revising US federal government loan guarantee programmes.”
The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) also has recognised the importance of AFCC’s contribution to revitalising and advancing the Title 17 programme. As of September 2023, the LPO had nearly 160 projects moving forward, several of which are being carried out by AFCC member companies, requesting nearly $140bn in financing, with more than a dozen projects receiving conditional commitments and going to or having gone through closing to finance their construction.
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition played a significant role in advocating for the new funding and industry incentives enacted in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
This included:
- Advocating successfully with key Senate offices to increase TENFOLD – the loan authority for the Department of Energy Title 17 programme from $40bn to $400bn;
- Advocating successfully for new tax credits for clean hydrogen and new biofuel production such as sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), advanced and cellulosic biofuels, renewable chemicals, and biobased products;
- Advocating for new funding programmes for renewable SAF in the IRA and grants for biomanufacturing in the IIJA; and
- For the first time, Section 48C of the Internal Revenue Code includes a 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for renewable chemical and biofuels producers, so long as they are the manufacturers of the equipment that is reducing emissions.
Other accomplishments
The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition has worked successfully with the Senate Agriculture Committee in drafting a marker bill, ‘Biomanufacturing and Jobs Act of 2023, S.2452’, for the re-authorisation of the 2023 Farm Bill, which incorporates several of AFCC’s Farm Bill priorities, including:
- Executive Order 14081, ‘Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy’, which is related to biobased procurement and its implementation;
- Additions to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for alternative fuels, renewable chemicals, and biobased products;
- Creation of a scientifically based, verifiable Carbon Intensity Consumer Label for all agriculture and farm products;
- Advocating for the expansion of the federal aviation language in the re-authorisation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pending bill by requesting funding to support Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) grant programmes;
- Implementation of the 2022 IRA provisions;
- Re-introduction of the renewable chemicals tax credit bill; and
- Modernising life cycle analysis (LCA) models at federal agencies to ensure accurate birth-to-grave modelling of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Ongoing initiatives of the American Fuels & Chemicals Coalition
AFCC has established multiple working groups and committees to address specific issues, with weekly Webex calls in which one-third or more of AFCC’s 150+ member companies participate, along with guest speakers, federal agency officials, and Congressional staff.
AFCC’s working groups focus on biobased economy finance chaired by senior executives at the top five US banks; biobased manufacturing applications and renewable chemical production; creating carbon-negative platforms by working in collaboration with the American Association for Testing Materials (ASTM), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other interested stakeholders in the commodity markets to create a scientifically-based carbon intensity consumer label for farm products at their retail points of sale; sustainable feedstocks and biofuels; using forest residuals to reduce the incidence of catastrophic wildfires and produce value-added products such as renewable fuels, renewable chemicals, sustainable aviation fuels, and biobased products; and federal government relations.
The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition also provides responses to requests for information from the White House, Congress, and federal agencies on topics affecting its member companies; written testimony on bills under consideration by the US Congress; and proposed legislative language to promote and protect the interests of its member companies and the bioeconomy in the bills and appropriations under consideration by Congress.
The following is a sample of the recent comments AFCC has submitted to federal agencies. These include:
- The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed renewable fuel standards for 2023, 2024, and 2025;
- Changes related to the EPA’s Set Rule;
- The US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Notice 2022-58, amendment, request for comments on credits for clean hydrogen and clean fuel production;
- Treasury and IRS, Notice 2023-06, sustainable aviation credit; registration; certificates, request for public comments;
- Response to EPA request for information on the greenhouse gas reduction fund (GGRF);
- Treasury and IRS, Notice 2022-57, request for comments on the credit for carbon oxide sequestration;
- Treasury and IRS, Notice 2022-58, request for comments on credits for clean hydrogen and clean fuel production;
- Treasury and IRS, Notice 2022-47, request for comments on energy security tax credits for manufacturing under Sections 48C and 45X; and
- Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, carbon storage technology operations & research.
AFCC’s current legislative priorities
AFCC’s current legislative priorities include:
- Advocating in the 2023 Farm Bill for improvements to USDA’s Section 9002 BioPreferred Program and Section 9003 Biorefinery, Renewable Chemicals, Manufacturing Assistance Loan Guarantee Program, as well as for reinstatement of the Section 9010-11 Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to assist with wildfire management and renewable biomass procurement;
- A proposed amendment to the Clean Air Act to add a definition for “Forest Residuals” to allow catastrophic wildfire-causing materials and hazardous fuels to be removed from federal lands in areas at high wildfire risk, as shown on US Forest Service wildlife hazard maps, which may be used to produce value-added, renewable products which, to provide the necessary incentives to private sector entities to retrieve these residues, ‘shall qualify for the State and Federal incentives for the production of said products’;
- A proposed $500m grant programme, to be administered by the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, to provide cost-share grants to projects that have the potential to qualify for the DOE’s Title 17 Loan Guarantee programme, with the grants provided as development capital to enable promising projects to complete final Technology Readiness Level (TRL) development and the necessary pre-construction steps to be eligible to apply for the Title 17 programme; and
- A proposed carve-out from the FY2025 appropriation for one of the Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) existing programmes to work with state departments of transportation, transportation associations, and highway construction industry associations to encourage States to use advanced, innovative, transformative, and sustainable technologies and materials in all federally funded transportation projects.
Join AFCC’s third international conference
The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition holds conferences each year to help grow and strengthen the biobased economy in the US and worldwide. Its third international conference will be held between 12-14 November, 2023, at the Gaylord Resort and Conference Center at Washington Habor, adjacent to Washington D.C.
At the conference, delegates will be able to:
- Network with new peers in addition to reconnecting and rekindling with existing ones;
- Attend industrial biotechnology sessions and events for business leaders, researchers, government representatives, investors, and policymakers in the decarbonisation of sustainable aviation fuels, alternative fuels, renewable chemicals (including bioplastics), biomaterials, food ingredients and additives, flavours and fragrances, alternative proteins, and regenerative agriculture;
- Discover opportunities to have business meetings and deal makings to help businesses build supply chains and solidify value chains with the opportunity to create new ones;
- Learn about unique and creative solutions to mitigate climate change and demonstrate sustainable economic growth;
- Meet federal agency program managers, government leaders, procurement managers, and government officials in the heart of the capital city;
- Hear from your colleagues and other industry leaders;
- Meet pioneers pursuing the next generation of cutting-edge applications and biobased manufacturing;
- Gain insight into new innovative technologies and learn more about the research and industries involved;
- Celebrate the industry’s accomplishments; and
- Help companies continue to grow through new business and research opportunities.
The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition’s conference provides opportunities to learn more about:
- Biobased manufacturing and its applications, renewable chemicals, bioplastics and biomaterials, and creating a cleaner planet;
- Sustainable feedstocks, biofuels, food, and feed products driving decarbonisation;
- Renewable specialty chemicals;
- Synthetic biology, alternative protein, regenerative agriculture, food, fibre, and biofuels;
- Building the biobased economy supply chain.
For more information on AFCC’s Annual International Bioeconomy Conference & Exhibit, please visit https://www.altfuelchem.org/2023-afcc-conference-registration.
To reserve a hotel room at the AFCC conference discount rate, please visit https://www.altfuelchem.org/2023-afcc-hotel-conference-information.
