Group of 46 House Members Press for Biodiesel Credit
Source: By Todd Neeley, DTN/Progressive Farmer • Posted: Monday, October 1, 2018
In a letter on Thursday to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the lawmakers push for a multi-year extension of the credit.
For years the biodiesel industry has faced ups and downs with the tax credit, which often has been subject to 11th-hour budget battles.
In the letter led by Reps. David Young, R-Iowa, and Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, the lawmakers make a case that the credit is needed at a time when agriculture continues to struggle.
“Biodiesel and renewable diesel producers are putting investments on hold in the face of the uncertainty created by the off-again, on-again nature of tax incentive eligibility,” the letter said. “A multi-year extension of the biodiesel and renewable diesel incentives will provide the industry the certainty it needs to continue to generate the economic and environmental public benefits.”
“Right now, soybean farmers are harvesting a record crop but facing extreme uncertainty about the price they’ll receive and whether they’ll have access to markets,” he said. “A multiyear extension of the biodiesel tax incentive would give farmers a welcome bit of certainty this year.”
In addition, the biodiesel industry has paid a price from EPA’s small refinery waivers issued in 2016 and 2017, to the tune of about 300 million gallons lost.
In a legal brief filed in July challenging the EPA’s implementation of the RFS, the National Biodiesel Board said the EPA “must account for and eliminate the shortfalls” when setting the next RFS volumes.
Read the letter here: http://kce.informz.net/…