Biodiesel companies press Biden admin for tax credit guidance

By Marc Heller | 10/03/2024 01:30 PM EDT

Producers say they’re hamstrung by the Treasury Department’s delay in setting the rules for a clean fuels tax credit taking effect in January.

A motorist fills up with gasoline containing ethanol.

A motorist fills up with gasoline containing ethanol in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 26, 2013. The Biden administration is expected to release guidance on a new clean fuels tax credit taking effect next year. Charlie Riedel/AP

Biofuel producers who want to take advantage of a new clean fuels tax credit next year say they desperately need to know how the Treasury Department intends to implement it.

Companies worried about the Biden administration’s delay in outlining the details of the credit — which is supposed to take effect Jan. 1 — are calling on Treasury to reveal some details now, so that producers can base year-end business decisions on what to expect in 2025.

“Lack of guidance today is already impacting biodiesel production,” said ADM and five other producers in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sept. 20, urging quick action on the tax credit in Section 45Z of the Internal Revenue Code. Without some kind of “safe harbor” guidance, production could grind to a halt, they warned.

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Comments by a Treasury official on Tuesday that the administration is “actively” working on guidance for the tax credit didn’t offer much reassurance, said Paul Winters, communications director for Clean Fuels Alliance America, an industry group for biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel.

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