Renewing the biodiesel credit

Renewing the Biodiesel Credit

Because the RFS program is important to our national interests, domestic biodiesel usage is incentivized through a tax credit for each gallon of biodiesel blended into transportation diesel or home heating oil.

This tax credit helps ensure the biodiesel marketplace remains viable. Unfortunately, Congress failed to pass a renewal of this tax credit for 2017. This inaction may result in a lower quantity of biodiesel in the U.S., which in turn may stall the positive effect this renewable fuel has on our environment.

The new administration is hoping to enact tax reform in 2017, and it is imperative the incentive to manufacture and use renewable fuels be included in any new tax legislation. A new tax incentive that focuses on U.S. biodiesel producers should also be designed to stop foreign biodiesel producers profiting from U.S. tax subsidies.

In spite of the clear economic contribution of U.S.-produced biodiesel, the industry continues to be imperiled by both congressional indecision over the form and duration of a biodiesel tax credit and by the threat of foreign imports. Simply put, a pro-U.S. biodiesel tax incentive would spur production and sale of U.S.-produced biodiesel—the very reason the credit was created in the first place back in 2005. This action would also provide substantial benefits to the U.S. agriculture industry, feedstock suppliers…and create more U.S. jobs—including right here in Connecticut.

Contact the Connecticut U.S. Congressional Delegation

You can help by writing your U.S. Congressman or Congresswoman and our U.S. Senators and asking they support continued tax credits for biodiesel.

Here are the names and addresses of each of Connecticut’s U.S. representatives in Washington:

The Honorable Senator Richard Blumenthal

U.S. Senate and House of Representatives

706 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510