Legislation to extend the ethanol blenders’ tax credit and the tariff on imported ethanol for five more years was unveiled in Washington Thursday.
Citing the situation with biodiesel, Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dineen says it’s vital that Congress act before the current tax credit and import tariff expire at the end of this year.
“Last December, Congress failed to extend the tax incentive for biodiesel—and the impact that it has had on that industry has been catastrophic,” says Dineen. “We cannot allow that to happen with the ethanol industry.”
Considering the ethanol mandate in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), some have questioned the continued need for the blenders’ credit. But Dineen says the RFS doesn’t assure where the ethanol is going to come from.
“There are countries that have subsidized their ethanol that would love to be able to satisfy the RFS,” he says, “but there’s no reason in the world why we should be shifting our dependence on imported oil to a dependence on imported ethanol—and if we don’t do this, it will have a devastating impact on our industry.”
Dineen says the future of the ethanol industry is riding on this legislation. “We need to have a long-term extension and investment in this industry so that it can continue to grow and evolve, to develop next-generation ethanol technologies and become ever more energy efficient.”
RFA has joined with several other organizations in sending a letter to each member of Congress, expressing support for the legislation. Other groups signing the letter were Growth Energy, the National Corn Growers Association, the American Coalition for Ethanol, National Sorghum Producers and the National Farmers Union.
The Renewable Fuels Reinvestment Act, as it is called, is sponsored by Representatives Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota and John Shimkus of Illinois.
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