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Your Help Is Needed to Save the Biodiesel Tax Incentive
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Please contact your Congressional offices immediately to stress the vital importance of enacting an extension of the biodiesel tax credit before Congress adjourns. It is possible that before Thursday, Dec. 17, Congress will have completed negotiations on the final “must-pass” legislative vehicle, the Defense Appropriations Bill. The Defense Appropriations Bill will carry several other legislative provisions that Congress needs to address before the end of the year. If the biodiesel tax incentive extension is not included on this legislative vehicle, it is highly likely that the credit will expire on December 31 and biodiesel producers will shut down. Since its enactment in 2004, the biodiesel tax incentive has achieved its desired goal of increasing the domestic production and use of biodiesel. When the incentive was enacted, the United States produced 25 million gallons of biodiesel. That number rose to 690 million gallons in 2008. Last year, the domestic biodiesel industry supported 51,893 jobs and displaced over 38 million barrels of foreign oil. The biodiesel tax incentive is structured in a unique manner that allows the value of the credit to be reflected in the price of the fuel. Thus, if the credit is allowed to lapse, biodiesel will be significantly more expensive in the marketplace than petroleum diesel fuel, and production and use of the fuel will come to a halt. Even if the credit is eventually extended retroactively, significant harm will be done to the U.S. biodiesel industry if the credit lapses. ISA urges you to contact your congressional offices ASAP and urge them to not let the biodiesel tax credit expire. |
