One week to go to the new Trump administration. Ahead of next Monday’s inauguration, Senate committees will be rushing to tee up Donald Trump’s least controversial cabinet selections for quick confirmation.
Cabinet picks who have confirmation hearings this week include former Rep. Lee Zeldin, picked to head the EPA; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, selected for interior secretary; Scott Bessent, named to be treasury secretary; and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, picked to head the Department of Homeland Security.
We’ll be watching: The hearings give senators the chance to put the incoming cabinet members on the record on issues ranging from tariff policy, in the case of Bessent; energy and water issues, in the case of Zeldin and Burgum; and immigration enforcement and mass deportations, in the case of Noem.
For more on this week’s D.C. agenda, read our Washington Week Ahead, and follow our coverage of the confirmation hearings at Agri-Pulse.com.
Mixed reactions to scope of 45Z proposed guidance
Those in the biofuel industry who had great expectations for the proposed 45Z guidance were underwhelmed by the document ultimately released by the Treasury Department on Friday.
Treasury’s notice provides initial guidance on emissions rates for the 45Z clean fuel production credit established in the Inflation Reduction Act. In virtually all cases it specifies use of the Argonne National Laboratory’s GREET model, to measure the carbon intensity of clean fuels, which ultimately determines the amount of the credit. An updated version of the GREET model is expected imminently.
In a win for soybean producers and crushers, the guidance appears to make imported used cooking oil ineligible for the credit, at least until the U.S. can set rules on verifying these imports.
Groups like the National Oilseed Processors Association and the American Soybean Association have been raising alarms over the increase of imported UCO, spurred by other clean fuel regulations and CI models that favored imports over domestically produced feedstocks. ASA President Caleb Ragland called the 45Z guidance “an investment in U.S. farmers, who stand ready to feed and fuel the world — while also fueling the U.S. economy."
Other groups expressed concern that it doesn’t include details on how climate-smart agriculture feedstocks would be incorporated into the credit. Treasury said it plans to develop rules on this and will consider voluntary technical guidelines for climate-smart ag reporting and verification that USDA is developing. USDA said an update on those guidelines could be available in the coming days.
Mitchell Hora, founder and CEO of Continuum Ag, said the USDA thinking on climate-smart farming practices should have been released ahead of the Treasury guidance, and that the proposal was a missed opportunity.
California moves forward with E15
In his initial budget plan for the coming fiscal year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for funding to accelerate the state’s review of E15.
In October Newsom directed agencies to wrap up the regulatory process this year. He reasons the higher ethanol blend would reduce gas prices, help stabilize supply and ease the state’s transition to zero-emission vehicles.
Tai appeals for continued ‘worker-centered’ focus in trad epolicy
As she approaches the end of her tenure, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai is warning against a return to laissez-faire globalization. “The effects of those trickle-down policies have become all too clear,” Tai wrote in a Foreign Affairs op-ed. She charged that the liberalizing policies of the late 20th century left U.S. supply chains more vulnerable and exploited workers and the environment.
In a podcast, Tai struck a similar note as she described the Biden administration’s trade legacy. The administration’s approach, she said, refocused policy away from the pursuit of lower prices at all costs and toward worker empowerment and greater competition.
“What I am really optimistic about is that we have started a conversation that is a movement, that is growing,” Tai said.
New avian flu cases in commercial poultry found
Agricultural officials in Maryland and Delaware are urging poultry producers in their states to follow strict biosecurity practices after highly pathogenic avian influenza was detected at three broiler operations.
Maryland announced Friday that a facility in Caroline County had been affected. A state official told the Washington Post that 250,000 birds had been euthanized. In Delaware earlier this month, more than 500,000 birds at two broiler operations in Kent County were affected. It was the first case in a commercial poultry operation in Maryland since 2023, and the first since 2022 in Delaware.
Nationwide, infections ticked up considerably in December, following a similar pattern in 2023.
Broadband groups urge Supreme Court to uphold constitutionality of Universal Service Fund
Three broadband groups are urging the Supreme Court to overturn a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that found the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund unconstitutional.
The Competitive Carriers Association, NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, and USTelecom on Friday filed a brief defending the constitutionality of the FCC’s use of the Universal Service Administrative Company, a private entity, to calculate assessment amounts under the USF. The service fund distributes money to programs that defray the cost of phone and internet access in rural areas.
Take note: In the brief, the groups say that without USF programs, rural consumers will pay increased service costs and may fall behind urban residents in receiving connectivity. Citing an NTCA survey, they warned that rural carriers could decide to cancel nearly $2 billion worth of deployment projects in 2025 and 2026.
Tentative port contract includes wage boost, automation protections
The contract deal currently on the table for East and Gulf Coast port workers includes a 62% wage increase, “iron-clad protections” against automation and semi-automation, and boosts to healthcare and retirement benefits, the International Longshoremen’s Association said Friday.
Months of tense negotiations between dockworkers and their port employers caused agricultural shippers to worry about a strike as early as Wednesday. But ILA leaders agreed last week to operate under their current contract until dockworkers could vote to ratify the new agreement.
Final word
“There's just a perception that somehow there's going to be a gathering of buses out in the city square, and everybody's going to have to load up and go out. That's just not how it happens in real life. This will take a long time.” – Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press about Trump’s plans for mass deportations.
