Congress loves biofuels forever. Will biodiesel and ethanol credits become permanent?
We have already reported that this year's Congress will pursue energy issues individually, and one of the most important issues up for debate is biofuels. Reps. Earl Pomeroy and Kenny Hulshof have introduced the Renewable Fuels and Energy Independence Promotion Act of 2007 which proposes to permanently extend tax breaks for ethanol and biodiesel production. The act moves to permanently extend the current 51 cent-per-gallon ethanol tax credit and a 10 cent-per-gallon small producer ethanol credit which are both currently set to end in 2010. The legislation also calls for the current 54 cent-per-gallon ethanol import tariff to be made permanent.
Biodiesel hasn't been forgotten, with the current $1 per-gallon biodiesel tax credit and the 10 cent-per-gallon biodiesel producer income tax credit for small agri-biodiesel producers planned to be permanently extended as well. The $1 per-gallon excise tax amounts to a penny per percentage point of agri-biodiesel, that is biodiesel produced from "first-use" feedstocks such as virgin vegetable oils or animal fats, blended with petroleum diesel.
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[Source: Ethanol Producer Magazine]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 2:20PM (1/09/2007)
"Earl Pomeroy and Kenny Hulshof have introduced the Renewable Fuels and Energy Independence Promotion Act of 2007 which proposes to permanently extend tax breaks for ethanol and biodiesel production."
Waste of taxpayer's money, or politics as usual. Ethanol is a pure boondoggle/vote-buying scheme, and biodiesel doesn't need the subsidy. What is needed is to end the federal handouts to Big Oil, and let biofuels compete on a level field, which would quickly and completely wipe out ethanol and hydrogen, leaving biofuels which are actually green and economical, such as biodiesel, veggie-oil, and perhaps butanol.
The biggest beneficiary of elimination of Big Oil subsidies is likely to be EV or EV/pluggable hybrid, which I hope becomes the dominant mode of private transportation in the near future.
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