NBB, ABFA team up to support tax credits

Posted Sept. 27, 2010

Many senators will soon hit the campaign trail for fall elections, but before they go the National Biodiesel Board and the Advanced Biofuels Association have joined together to remind them of the importance of extending the biodiesel, renewable diesel and alternative fuels tax credits.

In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate Committee on Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and ranking member of the Committee on Finance Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the two advanced biofuel groups noted the "urgent" and "noncontroversial" need to reinstate the incentives. The letter states, "We respectively ask that you expeditiously act to retroactively extend the biodiesel, renewable diesel and alternate fuel tax incentive through 2011 prior to adjourning for November elections."

"Before the Senate goes home to campaign," Manning Feraci, vice president of federal affairs for the NBB said, "it should do the right thing and seamlessly reinstate the biodiesel tax incentive." The joint-effort between the NBB and the ABFA is relatively new, but Feraci noted that both "share the opinion that Congress should pass an extension of these biofuel incentives before they adjourn for the year." Passing a retroactive tax incentive would not only restore several jobs lost from the expiration of the tax incentive, but also allow entrepreneurs and producers the ability to access capital needed to produce advanced biofuels, the letter also stated.

ABFA President Michael McAdams said if Washington doesn't act before lawmakers leave for the campaign trail, they are essentially putting a hold on our nation's energy and economic security. "It is critical that policies already put in place will continue to incentivize and reward continued innovation in superior performance technologies and products so that we can reach renewable fuel goals much higher than current standards," he said. "Industry cannot be expected to continue to build and develop fuels of the future if the government does not hold up its end of the bargain."