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Biodiesel day brings out supporters who tout renewable fuel's Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Agri News staff writer
WASHINGTON -- Biodiesel backers celebrated National Biodiesel Day with a conference call on legislation that could benefit the industry.
Ron Heck, an Iowa soybean grower and president of the American Soybean Association, and Bob Metz, a South Dakota soybean farmer and chairman of the National Biodiesel Board were joined by Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, in the half-hour call with reporters.
Metz said that what happens in the energy bill is as important to farmers as the farm bill that passed two years ago. The bill provides a great opportunity to bring money back to farmers.
Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said all one has to do is look at how the price of fuel has skyrocketed to see the need for an energy bill. Americans depend on a reliable supply of energy for everything, he said.
"It's just a sad commentary that we didn't a pass a very good energy bill November," Grassley said.
The bill would keep dollars that are now being sent overseas in the United States to support renewable energy alternatives, he said. It makes sense to keep the money at home, while at the same time reducing pollution and foreign oil dependence.
Grassley's pending legislation would grant a 1 cent reduction in excise tax per percent of biodiesel blended with diesel up to a 20 percent or 20 cent cap. The biodiesel credit would apply to all domestically produced oilseeds and all recycled oil, Heck said.
Some may say that biodiesel legislation only affects agriculture, Metz said, but that's not true. Nearly all -- 95 percent -- of the freight moved in the United States is moved by diesel engines.
Trucks are the No. 1 user of diesel fuel in the nation, followed by agriculture. Trucks burn about 35 billion gallons of diesel fuel a year.
The goal is to pass Grassley's legislation on the energy bill, the transportation bill or other legislation moving through Congress.
Biodiesel won't displace any domestic oil, but it will reduce the United States dependence on foreign oil, Metz said. Minnesota's senators expressed their support of biodiesel in press releases. Both voted for the energy bill that contained the biodiesel language.
Minnesota has a 2 percent biodiesel mandate and a soybean processing facility built near Brewster will include a 30-million-gallon biodiesel production facility. |
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