The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced the closing of a $1.67 billion ($1.44 billion of principal and $233 million of capitalized interest) to Montana Renewables, LLC (Montana Renewables or MRL).
The loan guarantee will help finance the expansion of a renewable fuels facility in Great Falls, Montana to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), renewable diesel and renewable naphtha.
The decarbonization of the U.S. transportation and industrial sectors depends on a significant increase in the production of biofuels—which are expected to deliver new economic opportunities for agricultural and rural communities across the nation while tackling the climate crisis. This project will utilize vegetable oils, fats, and greases to produce sustainable fuels.
The MRL facility has been in operation since late 2022, currently producing about 140 million gallons per year of biofuels, most of which is renewable diesel. The loan guarantee will fund facility expansion to produce about 315 million gallons per year of biofuels, most of which will be SAF. Once the facility reaches full capacity, Montana Renewables will be a leading global SAF producer, expected to produce about half of all North American SAF and about 12% of all global SAF through 2030. MRL will produce fuels with significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions, on a life cycle basis, when compared to the production and consumption of conventional co-products, including jet fuel.
This project supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s SAF Grand Challenge goal of increasing U.S. production of SAF to 3 billion gallons per year by 2030 and 35 billion gallons per year by 2050. As the aviation sector aims to meet its decarbonization goals, SAF will become increasingly vital. SAF is one of the only viable near-term options to decarbonize the airline industry, which is responsible for 11% of U.S. transportation emissions or 3.3% of total U.S. emissions.
LPO borrowers are required to develop and ultimately implement a comprehensive Community Benefits Plan (CBP). CBPs ensure borrowers meaningfully engage with community and labor groups to create good-paying jobs and improve the well-being of the local community and workers. This project is expected to create, at its peak, 450 construction jobs and up to 40 new operations jobs. A majority of the workers currently employed at the MRL facility are union workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the United States Steelworkers Local 0491. For more than a decade, Calumet (the parent company of MRL) has funded various Great Falls educational initiatives in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics at local schools and colleges
