60 Organizations Sign Tax Extenders Letter to Congress

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) A group of 60 organizations representing diverse business, energy, transportation, real estate and agriculture sectors has sent a letter to leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate on the “pressing need” to address the expired tax provisions, commonly referred to as the tax extenders.

The tax extenders, including the $1 per gallon blenders credit for biodiesel and renewable diesel, expired on Dec. 31, 2017.

“This has created confusion for the numerous industry sectors that utilize these tax incentives and support thousands of jobs in the U.S. economy,” the letter states. “The continued uncertainty with regard to eventual congressional action on tax extenders is undermining the effectiveness of these incentives and stands as a needless barrier to additional job creation and economic growth in the private sector.”

In the letter, the organizations ask the legislators to retroactively extend the expired tax provisions, at a minimum, through 2019 before Congress adjourns for the year. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: A draft bill to address tax extenders is almost ready for circulation, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady said Tuesday. "Brady said the package will also include 70 to 80 other alterations to the tax law, H.R. 1 (115), the vast majority of which he characterized as very minor clarifications," Pro's Aaron Lorenzo reports. READ MORE

Excerpt from DTN The Progressive Farmer: A draft bill to address a host of tax extenders is almost ready to be released, according to House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, a plan which would include the biodiesel tax credit which lapsed at the end of 2017.

Permanently extending all 26 tax provisions that expired at the end of 2017 that are currently in play would reduce federal revenue by about $92.5 billion over the coming decade, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis based on Joint Committee on Taxation estimates.

Most costly of the lapsed provisions is a $1.00 per gallon tax credit for the sale of biodiesel. “There is enormous public benefit to home-grown, renewable clean energy,” said Kurt Kovarick, vice president of federal affairs for the National Biodiesel Board, a trade association. “Without that credit, we would not have the support to grow the industry. We don’t want to remain at two percent to three percent of the market.”

The biodiesel credit is an expensive proposition for some, above $3 billion per year. Permanently extending the credit would cost an estimated $35.2 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Research Service.

One of the key players in creating the biodiesel credit as chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee in 2004, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters Tuesday that extending it was one of his top lame duck priorities. "There some important provisions that need to be dealt with, and the one that I’m most interested in is the biodiesel tax credit,” said Grassley, who is in line to become Finance chairman once again if he decides to leave his top slot on Judiciary. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: Five energy trade groups wrote a letter Monday urging Congress to buck any federal tax credit for electric vehicles as part of a tax extenders package, calling it "bad policy." They added: "It is unwise public policy to subsidize a highly inefficient means of GHG reduction that primarily benefits the wealthy, driving up the deficit or forcing taxpayers to make up the difference." The letter was signed by the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers; American Petroleum Institute; NACS; Petroleum Marketers Association of America; and SIGMA. READ MORE