Legislation that would reinstate the federal $1-a-gallon tax credit for biodiesel has been attached to a new bill would extend unemployment benefits.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin (D-Michigan) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) introduced the measure today:

The bill would extend for one year (through 2010) the $1.00 per gallon production tax credit for biodiesel and the small agri-biodiesel producer credit of 10 cents per gallon. The bill would also extend for one year (through 2010) the $1.00 per gallon production tax credit for diesel fuel created from biomass. This proposal is estimated to cost $868 million over 10 years.

This Business Week article says the biodiesel industry would like to see the measure passed before the Memorial Day holiday.

“We’ve gone through this game before where it looks like the game is over,” [National Biodiesel Board spokesman Michael] Frohlich said. Producers had anticipated the credit would be extended back in February…

Levin and Baucus said the tax- and-spending package may be put to a vote in the House tomorrow. It would then have to be approved by the Senate before it could be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

We’ll keep watching.