Lamberton, US: Highwater Ethanol, an ethanol plant in southern Minnesota, is working with corn farmers to improve the carbon intensity scores of their crops and increase the benefits available under clean fuel tax credits, Brownfield reported.
Highwater Ethanol CEO Brian Kletscher said the company plans to hold meetings with farmers after the harvest to explain changes to the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Tax Credit and explore ways to improve the carbon intensity scores of corn supplied to the plant.
Kletscher said the company hopes to identify opportunities to apply the changes retrospectively to the 2026 production year, covering corn grown in 2025, which could help improve Highwater Ethanol’s carbon intensity score.
The Lamberton-based plant qualified for a tax credit of 20 cents in 2025 and 30 cents in 2026, he said. The company needs to improve its score by about three points to qualify for a 40-cent credit.
According to Kletscher, achieving the improvement will depend partly on the corn supplied by farmers adopting practices such as minimum tillage and cover cropping, along with other measures that lower the crop’s carbon intensity.
The company hopes to source enough lower-carbon-intensity corn to improve its overall score and qualify for the higher credit. Kletscher said this could generate additional income for farmers supplying corn to the plant.
He made the remarks earlier this month during the Farm Forum programme on Brownfield affiliate KNUJ.
