Lisa Mullings, National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO) president and chief executive officer, urged US Senate leaders to quickly extend the biodiesel tax credit before it expires December 31. An extension would ensure an affordable biodiesel supply for the nation’s 3.5 million truck drivers and secure the environmental investments of the nation’s truckstops and travel plazas.
Mullings said extending the tax credit will increase biodiesel production while spurring retail investment in the infrastructure necessary to supply biodiesel to commercial carriers and the motoring public. Her request came just days after the US House of Representatives passed a one-year extension of the current $1 per gallon tax blender credit for biodiesel.
“Our members want to support green initiatives. But they are concerned that if they make the investment in biodiesel fueling infrastructure and the tax credit isn’t renewed, they won’t be able to sell the biodiesel because of the price disparity between biodiesel and other fuels,” Mullings said. “We would like to see the tax credit extended so that fuel retailers will be to make these investments.”
Congress imposed biodiesel production mandates in recent years to stimulate renewable fuel development. Without an extension of the tax credit, however, the production mandate would become meaningless as consumer demand for the product eroded.
The biodiesel tax credit, which is part of the “extenders” package known as HR 4213, includes $5 billion in individual tax relief, $17 billion in business tax relief, $1.2 billion to encourage charitable giving, $2.6 billion for disaster tax relief provisions, and more than $1 billion to extend expiring energy tax provisions.
