Lights, Camera, Congress…

Federal Legislation, Funding/Financing/Investing, grants, Opinions, Policy

August 24, 2011

Print This Article Share it With Friends

by Michael McAdams (Biorefining Magazine) …Washington’s jolting performance and the economic aftershocks have those of you on the verge of commercializing your replacement fuels questioning whether Congress and the White House can successfully provide the policy tools needed to ensure certainty in the markets for your next step.

Unfortunately, I don’t have encouraging news to share with you as I look at the renewable fuels landscape right now in Washington. Here’s a recap. For three months, we saw an effort to amend and redirect the funds associated with the ethanol tax credit. The Senate, for the first time since 1978, actually voted to repeal the long-standing credit that has supported the domestic ethanol industry. By a vote of 73 to 27, senators voted to repeal the credit effective July 1.

Following that vote, however, Sens. Thune, Klobachar and Feinstein attempted to negotiate a compromise to repeal the ethanol credit, bank $1.4 billion in savings to the treasury and allocate around $800 million for infrastructure and extending the cellulosic production tax credit. That deal ran into a number of snags and officially terminated July 31. Unable to pass this deal through the entire Congress, as part of a debt ceiling deal that was clear of any tax provisions, meant that $800 million of anticipated savings were now gone as the credit continues to operate across July and August at a burn rate of $400 million per month.

Further complicating the current political and legislative environment was that agreement to raise the debt ceiling. READ MORE

Comments are closed.

Advanced BioFuels USA