One step closer to tax credit reinstatement

December 16, 2010

BY Ron Kotrba

The big news in the biofuel world is the Senate’s passage of the tax bill in which the ethanol, renewable diesel, biodiesel and other tax incentives managed to survive. This is huge for the industries, and everyone is watching intently. Now it’s up to the House, then any reconciliation and finally presidential signing.

But all year Congress has been close to reinstating the biodiesel and renewable diesel credits, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Even with this good news about the tax bill and biofuel credits, as Anna Austin writes in “Omnibus spending bill could kill BCAP,” found in the accompanying e-newsletter or on our Web site, the spending bill for 2011 may be problematic for the biomass crop assistance program and advanced biofuel funding.

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Austin writes, “While the provision does not specifically remove money for funding the program, it does remove administrative expenses, which would effectively kill the program since USDA is not allowed to administer a program without a budget, according to Tom Kimmerer, senior scientist at Moore Ventures LLC. ‘The Omnibus does reduce direct BCAP spending by $134 million, or about half. It also rescinds unobligated funding balances for the Biorefinery Assistance program and Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels [about $84 million]—all of which are USDA programs,’ he said.”

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