Very early this morning the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was passed that included several one-year biofuel tax extensions including the Cellulosic Producer Tax Credit. While the ethanol industry was pleased with the bill, they remain outspoken that the biofuel industry needs a long-term federal commitment – not just one year.
Brooke Coleman, Executive Director of Advanced Ethanol Council responded to the passage of the bill. “The advanced ethanol industry commends President Obama and the 112th Congress for extending the cellulosic producer tax credit and accelerated depreciation allowance as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Just five years after the passage of the amended Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the cellulosic biofuels industry is breaking through at commercial scale.”
Coleman continued, “The one year extension will allow those projects coming online to continue development while Congress acts more broadly to reform the U.S. tax code to allow new players in the energy space to compete on a level playing field with oil and gas. We look forward to working with the Obama Administration and the next Congress to ensure that we continue to grow the next generation of biofuels right here in the United States.”
In addition to the Cellulosic Producer Tax Credit, the package included the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Tax Credit. Tom Buis CEO of Growth Energy noted that by extending the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Tax Credit to retailers through 2013, “Congress has also taken a critical step to bring E15 to the marketplace, “providing a choice and savings to the consumer. Furthermore, this provision will help decrease our addiction to foreign oil and help the renewable fuels industry break through the blend wall.”
“However,” added Buis, ” by only extending them for one year, Congress failed to provide the necessary certainty for investors and businesses to plan for the long term, which is imperative for continued stability and growth.”
Despite extension of one-year only, there were still some achievements with the second generation biofuel producer tax credit and the special allowance for second generation biofuel plant property. The Act, says the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), will incentivize both cellulosic and algae biofuel production with the renewal of the $1.01 per gallon tax credit for producers, accelerated depreciation for newly constructed facilities during 2013 and modifying these credits to include algae.Read More
Dinneen says it would be better that the alternative energy provisions were extended for 5-7 years instead of just one, but it is certainly understandable. “Folks do understand that is all that was on the table and really it’s teeing up a longer conversation about what to do with our tax code,” he said. “We want to have that conversation because we want all energy tax incentives on the table” including those benefiting the oil industry.
