National Biodiesel Board Releases Statement on Tax Legislation

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The National Biodiesel Board released the following statement from Vice President of Federal Affairs Anne Steckel after Reps. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), and Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), introduced legislation to extend the biodiesel tax incentive through 2019 and reform it as a domestic production credit:

“While oil tax breaks remain permanently written into the tax code, the biodiesel tax incentive is yet again set to expire in less than eight months. This is no way to do business. Biodiesel producers need stable, predictable tax policy to continue to grow and hire. We want to thank Reps. Noem and Pascrell for taking the lead on this issue to create that stability and spur economic activity.

“In addition to extending the incentive, this bill includes an important reform ensuring that this tax incentive is directed toward domestically produced biodiesel. This would not only reduce the cost of the tax incentive to the Treasury, but it would level the playing field for American producers who are now competing against predatory imports that are getting subsidies in their country of origin only to be shipped to the U.S. to receive another incentive from American taxpayers. Incentivizing foreign biodiesel production was never the intent of this incentive, and Congress should reform it immediately.”

After expiring on Dec. 31, 2014, the $1-per-gallon biodiesel tax incentive was reinstated in late 2015 and is slated to expire again on Dec. 31, 2016. Under the current “blender’s” structure of the incentive, foreign biodiesel imported to the U.S. and blended with petroleum diesel in the U.S. is eligible for the tax incentive. Increasingly, foreign biodiesel producers are taking advantage of the U.S. incentive by shipping their product here. In 2015 alone, some 670 million gallons of biodiesel was imported to the U.S., making up nearly a third of the U.S. market.

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