The Congressional Budget Office recently completed a study of biofuel tax credits, with the aim of determining if existing tax credits favor one biofuel over another. The study also estimated the costs of those credits on U.S. taxpayers.

Completed at the request of the Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure, the study was designed to provide policymakers with information on the value of the credits. In general, the report found that the cost to taxpayers for the biodiesel tax credit was less than the cellulosic ethanol tax credit, but more than the tax credit for corn ethanol. Although in the case of greenhouse gas emissions, this metric was reversed.

However, a statement issued by Imperium Renewables Inc. called the CBO report "fatally flawed." According to Imperium, the study is misleading because it accounts only for taxpayer costs, and does not address the many benefits these tax credits create for taxpayers. In addition, Imperium said the report underestimates the benefits of biofuels while hiding the significant cost to taxpayers of our reliance on fossil fuels. "This report is like a cost-benefit analysis, without the benefit analysis," said Imperium Founder and CEO John Plaza. "The CBO…ignored data showing that every dollar of subsidy invested in biofuels returns more than two dollars in increased gross domestic product and state and federal tax revenue."