Friday, December 18, 2009

Biodiesel may be gone, sooner than you think...

The tax credit for biodiesel / petroleum diesel blends (1¢ for each percent biodiesel, per gallon) is set to expire Dec 31, 2009 unless extended by Congress. Locally, Dan Rees of AZ Biodiesel is looking for a community response to motivate Congress to extend the 'blenders credit' for another year, which allows AZ Biodiesel and other vendors to price biodiesel at (or below!) petroleum diesel prices.

Without the blenders credit -- which on the 99.9% biodiesel that AZ Biodiesel sells is effectively $1/gallon -- biodiesel prices will rise to levels significantly higher than petrol diesel. The end result: there may not be enough demand for biodiesel to keep it available here in the Valley.

Congress has less than two weeks to extend the blenders credit: if they don't, even a retroactive extension may not be enough to keep pioneers like Dan in business.

Time to make some noise!