The Biofuels Acceleration Project

The project will accelerate the production of “high benefit” biofuels. “High benefit” biofuels have high net Energy production values, large carbon emissions reductions, sustainable methods of feedstock production, and drive substantial rural economic (farm sector) income, investment, and jobs multipliers. This project will use the voluntary buyer market for environmental credits, in an agricultural-sector specific manner, to leverage biofuel production economics, and accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to biofuels. AgRefresh, the applicant, is already employing a parallel strategy to leverage and accelerate farm methane projects through the creation and voluntary market sale of composite environmental credits called Pure Farm Energy™ Shares. Now, AgRefresh proposes to duplicate this business model within the emerging biofuels sector. AgRefresh, via the BAP Project, will monetize the positive benefits of farm-based Energy systems in order to maximize the cash flow to farm-owned feedstock and liquid biofuels production projects. The creative use of market-based environmental credits allows private consumer demand to leverage and accelerate feedstock production volumes and liquid biofuel production volumes. This private sector, market-based approach to biofuels is fully complementary to existing Federal and State initiatives. The project has three components. Component one is the development of three environmentally rigorous, peer-reviewed standards. These standards will cover the measurement of impacts, the project specific accounting rules, and the establishment of a registry. The second component is the actual implementation of the project by AgRefresh, including the tracking of quantified results such as: tunes of carbon emissions reductions, biofuel Energy volumes, and incomes, investment, and jobs impacts for producers and the associated rural sectors. Project standards and concepts will be shared via the advocacy and education component, the final component.