On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced a three-prong approach that will bring America to the next level of clean, green energy development: first, his administration has determined that the RFS laws passed by Congress as part of the 2007 Energy Bill can move forward under the greenhouse gas reduction requirements the law set for the various renewable energy sources, including corn-based ethanol.

Secondly, full deployment of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program promises to help farmers take part in the chain of gathering, delivering and processing biomass into various forms of energy.

Thirdly, the Obama administration has created a taskforce that aims to speed the development of clean coal—this would be a boon to a wide swath of rural America where coal has become a primary source of electric power generation.

“These moves from the EPA and the White House mean that the corn ethanol industry can count on growing to at least 15 billion gallons annual production and maintaining that level for the foreseeable future—if not growing even further,” said DeVonna Zeug, a farmer in Walnut Grove and president of Minnesota Corn Growers Association.  “The administration’s statements recognize the vital role of all our renewable fuels, including corn ethanol, in reducing our foreign oil dependence and also reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs).”

The president’s statement reads: “Increasing renewable fuels will reduce dependence on oil by more than 328 million barrels a year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than 138 million metric tons a year when fully phased in by 2022.”

The most important EPA finding for corn ethanol was its finding that, despite indirect land use changes that some experts connect to American biofuels industry, corn ethanol still meets the 20 percent GHG reduction specified by the 2007 Energy Bill.

The EPA research found that all the plants built or significantly expanded since Dec. 2007 meet this criteria.

“Ethanol produced from corn starch at a new (or expanded capacity from an existing) natural gas-fired facility using advanced efficient technologies that we expect will be most typical of new production facilities complies with the 20% GHG emission reduction threshold,” reads a statement from the EPA.

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program got its start in 2008, but Obama has proposed strengthening the program in two ways: it would provide matching funds to producers who provide ag or forest biomass to energy producers, and it would pay up to 75 percent of the cost of establishing dedicated energy crops like switch grass or fast-growing poplar. Biomass producers could collect such payments for up to 15 years.