A tax credit for biodiesel production expires at the end of this year and Senator Chuck Grassley says congress is unlikely to address the issue in December.
However, early next year Republicans in congress are hoping to extend a package of tax cuts approved in 2017 and Grassley says it’s possible the biodiesel production tax credit could be inserted in that bill.
Iowa is the largest US producer of biodiesel. The state’s nine biodiesel plants produced about 350 million gallons of soybean-based fuel last year. The biodiesel tax credit was established in 2005 and has been extended several times. Grassley says the U-S Treasury Department and Environmental Protection Agency rulings on the scope of other tax breaks for renewable fuels should have been made long ago.
In February, the EPA approved the sale of a 15% ethanol blend at gas pumps in Iowa and seven other Midwest states year-round, but the higher blend of ethanol still cannot be sold in other states during the summer months. The agency has long cited concerns that E-15 can cause smog during hotter weather.
