Biodiesel tax incentive could expire

The American Soybean Association is making one final push on the biodiesel tax incentive.

With the tax incentive expiring at the end of this month, ASA says it’s imperative that Congress extend the incentive before adjourning for the year.  ASA says absent the tax incentive, biodiesel production and consumption in the U.S. will come to a halt.

While it’s possible Congress could extend the tax incentive when it returns in January, Nebraska Soybean Association president Scott Richert of Gresham says the delay could cause problems for the industry.

“Once you shut a plant down and let people go, you have to start things back up and you hope you can get the people you had trained to run the plant (to come) back,” Richert says. “So we really want to get this done before the end of the year.  We’re running out of time.”

Richert says studies have shown the tax credit is worth about 25 cents a bushel to soybean producers.

“We keep using up the oil that has historically always been the slow mover after you crush the bean,” Richert explains. “That’s where biodiesel came from—trying to find a way to use the extra oil that was laying around.”

Specifically, ASA is urging that the extension be included in the pending Department of Defense appropriations bill.  That bill could be the last legislative vehicle enacted by Congress before it adjourns for the year.

AUDIO: Scott Richert

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