Call To Action! Biodiesel FET Credit Extension Needs Your Support Now!
July 20, 2010
Call to Action! FET Credit Extension Needs Your Video Now!
With Congress due back in session mid-September we have a short window of opportunity to publicize the critical need for an extension of the Biodiesel FET credit. It will take all of us to help to ensure that Congress gets the message loud and clear.
In the past few weeks, we at biodiesel.com have heard from many who have been negatively affected by the lapse in the FET credit. Working with the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, Pacific Biodiesel would like to help get your stories heard. Your 15-20 second video testimony on how you or someone you know has been hurt, whether it be a layoff from work, a bankrupt business, lost investment or vendor accounts dwindling due to less biodiesel production. Your stories and statements will be streamed together and the completed video posted on social media, linked to relevant websites and sent to the legislators across the country. Our collective stories will send the message that inaction on renewable energy is inexcusable.
So get out your video cameras, cell phones or other recording devices and let Congress know how you are being affected. We’re not looking for professional videographers, but real stories by real people who believe in supporting the sustainable biodiesel industry. Send your 15-20 second video clip to by October 15th, 2010 to contribute to this grass roots effort. Together we can save the biodiesel industry and keep moving toward local energy production for all communities in the U.S.!
Please take action! Voice your support for clean, renewable fuel and let Congress know that inaction on renewable energy is inexcusable! Contact your elected officials immediately by phone, email or written letter. For contact information, please click HERE for your Representatives and HERE for your Senators.
What is the biodiesel FET credit?
The biodiesel excise tax credit is an offset of excise tax liability paid by retail sellers of gasoline and diesel fuel, thereby making biodiesel price competitive with conventional diesel. It is equivalent to $1.00 per gallon of biodiesel produced, which allows for a considerable price break to customers. The credit has been extended each year since 2004 and has helped the biodiesel industry compete against petroleum, which currently enjoys global subsidies totaling over $550 billion annually.
What has the biodiesel FET credit done?
According to the National Biodiesel Board, in 2004 the U.S. produced 25 million gallons of biodiesel. Since then production has been increasing rapidly in large part due support from the federal and state governments. In 2009, U.S. production of biodiesel reached 545 million gallons. This means that the credit has helped to keep millions of dollars in the American economy rather than be sent overseas. The biodiesel industry is an economic engine to the U.S., adding $4.287 billion to our nation’s Gross Domestic Product and $866 million in tax revenue in 2008. . It has also helped to shrink America’s carbon footprint by billions of pounds of C02 every year.
What has happened and will happen without the FET credit?
Without an extension of the excise tax credit, biodiesel prices will significantly exceed conventional diesel, causing the demand for biodiesel to evaporate while further depressing domestic production of the renewable fuel. Because the petroleum industry receives subsidies of over $500 billion per year globally, biodiesel cannot compete with petroleum prices without a subsidy. Though the biodiesel credit is a small fraction of what petroleum companies receive in the U.S., it has allowed biodiesel producers to compete in a petroleum-controlled market.
So far, the American biodiesel industry has already been forced to close many plants and most that are open are producing much less than last year. According to the National Biodiesel Board, the drop in production and sale of biodiesel could cost the country as many as 23,000 jobs. Along with the jobs, the U.S. could lose its biodiesel infrastructure, as tanks and equipment are sold off to other countries. This puts America in a very vulnerable position in the future as continually being dependent on others for our energy. Being dependent on imported petroleum threatens our economy, our energy security, our health and our environment.
What can supporters do to help biodiesel?
You can contact your state Senators and Representatives by phone, email or letter and ask them to stand up for biodiesel in Congress by reinstating the biodiesel tax credit. For a template letter or email, please click HERE.
New bills offer hope for biodiesel tax credit
The latest chance for a biodiesel tax credit extension, H.R. 4213 or the Unemployment Extension Act of 2010, passed without the biodiesel tax credit extension included. READ MORE
