Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) last week announced legislation to “reduce carbon pollution over the next decade through a series of incentives for clean energy and the promotion of new technologies in the private sector.”

Wyden’s Clean Energy for America Act includes technology-neutral tax credits for domestic production of clean electricity and clean transportation fuel, as well as performance-based tax incentives for energy-efficient homes and office buildings. These credits are open to all resources, including fossil fuels that capture carbon or make efficiency improvements.

The legislation includes a proposal for a technology neutral tax credit designed to encourage the development and production of advanced and cellulosic biofuels, which has the support of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). “The RFA supports Senator Wyden’s efforts to develop an energy tax policy that provides long term certainty and stability for the second generation ethanol industry, encourages the development of new biofuel technologies and promotes the production and use of greater volumes clean fuel in the United States,” said Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen. “By reforming the existing tax credit into a technology neutral incentive, it will help stimulate investment among a wider range of production technologies and help promote the growth of the second generation biofuels industry.”