KEARNEY, Neb. — Leaders with the Nebraska BioEconomy are addressing the requirements for producers to participate in a new sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) operation.

There’s good news for farmers: they don’t need to be participating in the SAF tax credit to get a contract with DG Fuels. That means producers don’t need to change any of their current practices in order to explore a new market for their crop.

DG Fuels announced in August that it plans to open a plant in Phelps County that will produce 193 million gallons of SAF annually and provide 650 new jobs.

Nebraska BioEconomy Lead Julie Bushell says requiring conformity with the SAF tax credit was never on the table.

“Nebraska BioEconomy’s priority is to grow our family farms and drive additional revenue streams to those farms," Bushell said. "So coming to the market first saying you can only participate if you do these three practices was an absolute conflict to our initiative.”

Bushell says corn stover contracts for DG Fuels are being written right now. She expects them to be shared with area farmers this month.

Beyond Phelps County, Citroniq has pledged to build a plastics plant in eastern Nebraska that will use ethanol as fuel. Bushell says all BioEconomy projects are meant for the long-term.

“One of the important pieces from a Nebraska BioEconomy standpoint was to make sure that the buyers of these products are committed in perpetuity to moving to a bio-based product," Bushell said. "All of them have given us their commitment that this is a long-standing commitment for them.”

Preliminary economic impact studies say the DG Fuels plant alone could add $100 million in farm revenue annually from its corn stover contracts.