If Congress is wondering if there’s enough public support for the U.S. Senate to support the $1-a-gallon federal tax incentive (which, could come to a vote this week), a new survey shows Americans do favor these types of tax breaks.
This National Biodiesel Board press release says a new Stanford University poll finds that 84 percent of respondents favor federal tax breaks to encourage alternative energy, including water, wind and solar:
“The research clearly demonstrates Americans are crying out for home grown solutions to develop clean energy sources and end our addiction to oil,” said Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board (NBB). “The biodiesel tax inventive is a perfect example of the type of investments the federal government should be supporting to cut carbon pollution, lessen our reliance on petroleum and create green jobs.”
Jobe said the biodiesel tax credit, in just five years since its enactment, has resulted in the construction of over 150 renewable refineries in 44 states, 23,000 jobs, and billions of dollars of net tax revenue to the U.S. Treasury, all while displacing billions of gallons of petroleum.
Congress allowed the biodiesel tax credit to lapse on December 31, along with all other expiring tax provisions. As a result of the expiration, much of the industry has just shut down and almost half its employees have been laid off, leaving the industry on the verge of collapse.
Retroactively reinstating the biodiesel tax incentive was incorporated into H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, which passed the House last month and is now under consideration in the Senate.
Jobe says the delay from Congress so far has been “unacceptable.”