Senate Finance Committee Approves Extension Of Biodiesel Tax Incentive

Anne Steckel, Vice President of Federal Affairs for the National Biodiesel Board, issued the following statement August 2 after the Senate Finance Committee passed a bipartisan tax package that includes an extension of the now-expired biodiesel tax incentive.

"This is a refreshing display of bipartisan cooperation to get this economy moving again, and we applaud Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for their leadership," Steckel said. "Growth in our industry has been stagnant since the incentive expired on December 31. Reinstating it will get biodiesel producers across the country back to expanding their businesses and hiring new employees, as they were doing last year with the tax incentive in place."

"We call on the full Senate to quickly pass this package, and for the House to follow suit so that biodiesel producers can get the certainty they need to begin hiring again."

The biodiesel tax incentive was first implemented in 2005 and also expired in 2010. After it was reinstated last year, the biodiesel industry grew rapidly and set a new production record of nearly 1.1 billion gallons. Made from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil, soybean oil, and animal fats, biodiesel is the first and only EPA-designated Advanced Biofuel that's produced on a commercial scale across the U.S. It is produced in nearly every state in the country and is used in existing diesel engines without modification.

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