Technical Guidelines for the Production of Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstocks
On June 25, 2026, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the release of a final rule on Technical Guidelines for the Production of Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstocks.
The final rule establishes guidelines for quantifying, reporting, and verifying the carbon intensity (CI) associated with the production of regenerative biofuel feedstock commodity crops grown in the United States.
The final rule will be posted for public inspection on June 26, 2026 at regulations.gov and will be published on June 29, 2026.
Final Rule Text
Technical Guidelines for the Production of Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstocks
USDA Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator
The USDA Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator (USDA FD-CIC) quantifies carbon intensities (CI) for four domestic feedstock crops: field corn, soybeans, sorghum, and spring canola. The final rule Technical Guidelines for the Production of Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstocks includes USDA FD-CIC in Subpart C: Quantification of Field-level Crop-specific Carbon Intensity.
Tillage Disturbance Index for Soil Carbon
The Tillage Disturbance Index for Soil Carbon (T-DISC) tool generates a metric of soil disturbance that allows consistent determination of the intensity of tillage operations as an input for USDA FD-CIC.
Interim Final Rule
On January 15, 2025, USDA released the interim final rule. Archived information and supporting documentation for the interim final rule are accessible here.
Contact
For questions regarding the final rule or USDA FD-CIC, please contact: sm.oce.oeep.BiofuelFeedstocks@usda.gov
For questions regarding the T-DISC, please contact: sm.oce.oeep.tdisc@usda.gov
