National Biodiesel Board supports legislation to reform industry tax incentives

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) recently urged Congress to support biodiesel growth through passage of new legislation that would change the industry tax incentive from a blender’s credit to a producer’s credit.

“The biodiesel industry cannot grow and support good-paying jobs without some level of predictability on tax policy, and the legislative clock is winding down,” NBB VP of Federal Affairs Anne Steckel said.. “This tax incentive has strong bipartisan support, as demonstrated by the bills introduced today. It’s good for the economy, it’s good for the environment and it’s good for consumers. And importantly the reforms included in today’s bills will appropriately focus the incentive on U.S. production.”

The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Reps. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), would revise current tax incentives so that they would better support domestically produced biodiesel and prevent foreign fuel imported and blended in the U.S. from benefitting.

“I think lawmakers would universally agree we shouldn’t be using U.S .tax dollars to support the production of foreign fuel,” Steckel said. “The whole point of this policy is to create American jobs and industry while strengthening our energy security and encouraging innovation in the fuels market.”